The 100.4 KLCBS is a jazz radio in Bandung which has been consistantly served all kinds of jazz since the year it was established in 1982. The KLCBS Jazz Alliance was born as a media that accomodates listeners (from beginners to jazz enthusiasts), collectors, experts, musicians and journalists. KLCBS Jazz Alliance already has its own regular event called Jazz Not Jazz. The founder/CEO of KLCBS Nazar Noe’man who is also a jazz expert in Indonesia is the one who recommend the selection of arrangements and compositions for this jazz community gathering event. So far Jazz Not Jazz has been served three times. The first one at Javana Bistro featuring Arief Setiadi, Oele Pattiselano and Jeffrey Tahalele, the second at Opulence Dago and the  third installment once again took place at the same place with Gilang Ramadhan, Pra Budidharma and friends. Each event was attended by at least 250 people representing communities from all over Indonesia.

Here comes the 4th Jazz Not Jazz as the fruit of cooperation between KLCBS, Prama Grand Preanger and BNI. Holding the theme of “Absolutely Sensational Fusion”, this fourth installment will make sure you get the best of fusion by featuring full batch of highly talented and experienced artists. Jazz Not Jazz is coming on Thursday, December 18, 2014 at Prama Grand Preanger, Jl. Asia Afrika 81, Bandung.

As you may have seen on the e-flyer above, big names are going to treat you with high quality of jazztertainment. First, the band: Donny Suhendra Band. Led by senior jazz-blues-rock and all-rounder guitarist Donny Suhendra, this group is indeed the home of the giants because it featurs names like Budhy Haryono (former drummer of GIGI, Krakatau, Jamrock/Jamrud and Karimata), pianist Krishna Balagita (former keyboardist of ADA Band who celebrated his comeback to jazz by releasing a solo album titled “Sacred Geometry” eaerlier this year) and bassist Adi Darmawan, a multitalented figure found in the mainbending trio, LIGRO. As you can see, these are artists who have been placing themselves in between jazz and rock (and everything else in between) for many, many years. They will serve madness, no doubt.

As if these are not enough, the lineup goes longer with guest stars. Who? Well, listen carefully. The soulful powerhouse diva Dira Sugandi, violist/string man Ammy Kurniawan (one of 4 Peniti), Lia Amalia (one of the vocalists of Salamander Voices and background singer of Tulus) and Brury Effendi (the trumpeter of Salamander Big Band).

There are two ways to be a part of this event: Gold Package (Dinner and Concert) or Silver Package (Concert only). Scroll down to find the complete info about it.

BNI, KLCBS and Prama Grand Preanger are ready to warm you up during the rainy season with the 4th Jazz Not Jazz “Absolutely Sensational Fusion”. Interesting lineup that you won’t find elsewhere, featuring all players that could change the course of game with their presence. Other than that, it’s going to be cool to meet new friends who share the same passion or hobby inside a jazz community gathering like this. As we are a jazz-related media which happen to maintain our own jazz community through our two weekly regular event Braga Jazz Walk, we are proud to support this event. Alright. Jazz lovers, hope to see you at Grand Preanger on December 18, 2014.

BNI, KLCBS and PRAMA GRAND PREANGER Present: 4th Jazz Not Jazz “Absolutely Sensational Fusion”

Date: Thursday, December 18m 2014
Location: Prama Grand Preanger, Jln Asia-Afrika no 81 Bandung

Presenting:

Donny Suhendra Band :
– Donny Suhendra – (of ESQI:EF Krakatau and many other bands/projects) – Guitar
– Budhy Haryono (former GIGI, Krakatau, Karimata and Jamrock/Jamrud) –  Drum
– Krisna Balagita (former ADA BAND) – Keyboard
– Adi Darmawan (of LIGRO) – Bass

Guest Stars:
– Dira Sugandi – Vocalist
– Amy C. Kurniawan (4 Peniti) – Violinist
– Lia Amalia (Salamander Voices, Tulus’ background singer) – Vocalist
– Bury Effendi (Salamander Big Band) – Trumpeter

Ticketing:

Gold Package : Dinner and Concert
Silver Package : Concert only

Dinner starts at 6:30 pm
Concert starts at 8:00 pm

Gold Package IDR 250.000,-
Silver Package IDR 150.000,-

Online ticket: http://www.jazznotjazzgig.com

Ticket box:
Prama Grand Preanger Hotel
Jln. Asia Afrika No. 81, Bandung
+62 22-4231631
@pranger_bdg

Studio KLCBS:
Jln. Karang Layung No.10, Bandung
+62 22-2032452

Get Lucky Dip with BNI Card

For more info, visit:
– http://www.klcbs.net, Twitter @KLCBS
and
– http://www.jazznotjazzgig.com, Twitter @JazznotJazzGig

Jazz is full of improvisation. Jazz is full of innovation. It’s bursting with creative energy, respecting diversity and versatility. Jazz is played by young and old, of all creed and color. Herbie Hancock once said, “The spirit of jazz is the spirit of openness”. All of these are the spirit we keep in Braga Jazz Walk. Eventhough this is just a small, local community event, we try our best to keep it alive and based everything we do in it. We invite all kind of bands that enlive the jazz spirit. We try to push the regeneration, (re)introduce jazz to young musicians and the society, and give contribution towards the jazz development. Other than these, we also wish you bring some educational matters in variation. One of the way is to present tribute to legends. We hadn’t done it yet, but in Braga Jazz Walk #06 edition finally a well-established jazz band agreed to step on the plate.

The tribute was given to a legendary Jazz-funk master who passed away a few months ago in September, Mr Joe Sample. Aside from his illustrious solo career, he had a band who achieved a legendary status as well: The Crusaders (formerly known as The Jazz Crusaders).  And the band tributing Mr Sample and his group at this event was Chakraborty.

Before we get down to it, The Braga Jazz Walk #06 as usual featured two more performances. The show started a couple of minutes after seven with Nouveau. Nouveau comes from Telkom University Bandung and established from a collaborative project of several bands, They have to go changes especially on the lineup too many times until they had to drop the word ‘Project’ and use only Nouveau as the name.

Nouveau are Fachmi Satriyo Yogaswara (vocal), Camelia Yunitasari (vocal), Wiim Bahar Maulana (guitar), David Winalda (guitar), Mohamad Naufal Ihsan (bass) and Wira Majid (drums). More about the past members, eventhough they have quit the band, interestingly they still support the band, either as the additional players or crews. They have visited our events many times, only now we could put them in one of the three spotlights.

The groove started early with favorite songs among youngsters, “Kamu”. The Pharrell Williams’ “Happy” kept the cheerful mood. The vocalists did a great job in front, showing how soulful they are and how high they could climb. The third song was Dian PP and Deddy Dhukun’s “Masih Ada” in a happy disco beat. The disco beat continued on with “Treasure”, one of the recently happening hits of Bruno Mars and brought to the very end with Clean Bandit’s “Rather Be”.

This considerably new band is clearly rooted in pop Jazz with delicate Soul and RnB being glued into their concept, plus infectious disco beat. They don’t want to make anything too complex. They light it light but tasty. That should be able to reach the music listeners as wide as possible. One of the evidence was found in this event. They managed to drag good number of people too to watch them. We’re just happy to find more and more jazz-oriented band especially good ones like Nouevau.

If you’re following the Rising Star Indonesia 2014, you should have seen this next performer’s face. He’s getting more and more fans, which is good because he’s been doing it for quite some times now. He has even started playing piano since he was still 5 years old, probably has been singing ever since too. This talented young man’s name is Andre Arizky.

We knew him since a couple of years back when he was still singing in a Blues trio named Royal Flush. This year he joined that reality singing competition in RCTI and made it to Top 36 Wall Riser. Andre was also a contestant of StarVoices season 3. He didn’t win but it was enough for the public to spot his ability. We asked him to fill one of the slot in this 6th edition, he agreed and came up with a cool idea. He chose to perform basically alone, singing and playing piano just like one of his source of inspirations, Elton John. We have featured one man show before, singing and playing guitar, but we never had the chance to feature a man singing and playing piano. Especially when Andre was the one to do that, we immidiately agreed.

Dara Puspita’s “Burung Kakak Tua” and Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog” were just the warming up. “Hopefully I sing this one better than I did on TV”, he said before singing “Nuansa Bening”. Did he? Yes! It was deep. Next he took two songs from Elton John’s drawer. First was “Rocket Man”! Not many sing or even remember this song anymore, but Andre did a very lively cover. His voice matches Elton John, so does his piano playing. Then “Sorry Seems To Be the Hardest Word” was perfectly executed by him.

He invited a female singer Lunar Simamora to be with him. The song? A Great Big World ft Christina Aguilera: “Say Something”.  Wait, he still had one last present from Chicago: “Hard To Say I’m Sorry”.

He’s going to compete in X Factor. The audition is going to open very soon. Let’s wish him the best. A talent like him should be given enough chance to grow. Charming young man with cheerful, positive vibe, able to control the stage, able to bring life into just about any song and play multi genre, Andre Arizky will give more colors into our music industry. He can be the Indonesian Elton John, but it’s better not to label him anything so he can explore as wide as he wish. We won’t be surprise if one day this man becomes one of the big stars. Why not? He has it all.

Then, the final act, Chakraborty. Like we said earlier, they came with a special tribute to Joe Sample and the (Jazz) Crusaders. In the early 60’s, Joe shared the joy of hardbop which was popular at that time as one of the founders of The Jazz Crusaders. Joe’s play injected ‘soul’ into the band. Entering the 70’s, elements of rock, RnB, soul and funk became the headlines of global music. The Crusaders, that was the name since 1971, began to explore the jazz funk. Joe went more electric by using keyboard instead of piano. Again, he did very well with this style.

Joe is famous with his funk jazz. But don’t forget that this man can interpret anything with his skill. He could play anything with his own distinctive style. He was a flexible, no surprise since he grew up amongst various genres from gospel, jazz, soul, latin, blues to classical. This led him to become one of the pioneer of contemporary jazz pianist. He reached success too in solo career as well as several notable collaborations like with Lalah Hathaway and Randy Crawford. The music world especially jazz deeply mourned when he passed away last September 2014. He’s not with us anymore, yet the legacy lives on.

Joe Sample and the (Jazz) Crusaders are one of the most important names in the history of jazz. We’re proud to have the tribute served at Braga Jazz Walk by Chakraborty. Chakraborty is still a year old, but they have got many achievements and now stands as one of the most ready jazz band in Bandung to play just about anything. They never back out from challenge, they always happy to attend any jazz events eventhough they have no schedule to play. A good band with good spirit, passionate and focus. That’s what we think of this band.

They appeared full team with Joo Yang (drums), Adya Amru Hidayat (guitar), Ayu Sara (vocal), Yosua Setiawan (bass) and Nicodemus Horisson (keyboard). The tribute started with the title track of The Crusader’s 1979 album, “Street Life”.  They made soul funk being felt all over the mall.  A very popular song from The Crusaders and Bill Whiters, “Soul Shadows” in more dramatic style came right after. The third song was from the fine collaboration between two Crusaders members: Nils Landgren and Joe Sample titled “Don’t Take Your Love to Hollywood”. Time to step out from the theme, they sang original songs titled “Tiga” and their first single written by Ayu, “Kepahitan Termanis”.

The tribute was done nicely by them. They kept the essence of each song, but managed to give their own taste and interpretation to the works of Joe Sample and the Crusaders. A tribute is a good way to remind the young musicians of the artists/bands from any eras and the legacies they left to us. As we also holds education as one of the mission, we think presenting tribute is important. We plan to bring more tributes to other legends periodically, let’s hope we can make it. Chakraborty once again proved that they are reliable and great as a partner in crime.  Oh yeah, cool original songs shows how serious they are in this business.

The jam session in this edition was gleeful. Many musicians took part in it: The Owcindful boys Nicodemus Horisson (who shared the seat with Andre Arizky on piano), Jere (bass) and Andre (drums), Inez, Ayu Sara, Arjuna Sirait, Erick Gabe and Andre Fernando (vocals) and Hajar (guitar). While Andre Fernando played guitar and sing, Erick and Andre Arizky were found singing and playing piano. The songs? Well, Maroon 5’s “Sunday Morning”, John Legend’s “All of Me”, Vina Panduwinata’s “Dia” all the way to Chris Kayhatu’s “Rame-Rame”. In some parts they blended harmoniously as if they have had rehearsals, in other parts they were chaotic yet fun.  Photo session took place while the jam session was still running, and with that the show was wrapped.

Interesting edition is added to Braga Jazz Walk. This one got variety of style, format and good balance between jazztertainment and education. We’re happy with the result, hopefully our partners in crime Braga City Walk and KPH Music feel the same too.

What’s next? Allow us to share the good news. Since the fourth Thursday of this month falls exactly on Christmas (December 25), we are going to bring you A SPECIAL CHRISTMAS EDITION. We call it: Braga Jazz Walk: Oldtown Christmas. Two bands and one children choir are ready to celebrate Christmas together with you. So, mark the date from now. If you’re going to spend holidays in Bandung during Christmas or if you live in Bandung and have no plan to go anywhere, do join us. On top of that, let’s keep the jazz spirit alive. See you in two weeks from now!

Watch the highlight here:

See more pictures:

Reporter: Riandy Kurniawan
Photographer: Nia Kurniawati, Titus Firmanto
Video editor: Vierna Mariska Kurniawan

After three successful edition, 100.4 FM KLCBS off-air program JAZZ NOT JAZZ bagged another success in year 2014. This event is a KLCBS Jazz Alliance Community Gathering that stands as an amicable meeting of jazz people – from jazz listeners (from beginners to enthusiasts), collectors, experts, musicians, journalists, and everyone who have interest in jazz.

The combination between the music appreciation side, the market’s response, the blends between careful selection of musicians and music pieces will result into unique presentation in every edition of Jazz Not Jazz. Furthermore, the Marketing Director of KLCBS Khirzan N Noe’man has stated earlier that in more than 2 hours all the attendances would enjoy the presentation and collaboration altogether, including Meet and Greet.

KLCBS, BNI and the venue Prama Grand Preanger presented The 4th Jazz Not Jazz with high quality entertainment by presenting mouth-watering batch of all-star cast who have been placing their feet in between jazz and rock for many, many years. The band is Donny Suhendra Band, consists of Donny Suhendra (guitar), Budhy Haryono (drums), Krishna Balagita (keyboard) and Adi Darmawan (bass).

Donny is a guitar hero who plays just about everything. He’s capable to play all kinds of music. Other than maintaining his own band, he’s one of the pillars of ESQI:EF aka Syaharani and the QueenFireWorks. Let’s not forget that he’s one of the Krakatau and JavaJazz. Not only he is a great guitarist, he is a superb teacher and mentor too. There are so many successful guitarists today who actually learnt from him. Then, Budhy Haryono. This is a versatile senior drummer who was involved in so many famous jazz and rock bands like Jamrock/Jamrud, GIGI, Krakatau and Karimata. Krishna Balagita is widely known as the keyboardist of ADA Band, but this man is actually not far from jazz. He even had the opportunity to learn from Jack Lesmana. He just celebrated his ‘comeback’ to jazz by releasing his solo album “Sacred Geometry” earlier this year and a shot at the Java Jazz Festival 2014. As for the eccentric bassist Adi Darmawan, he’s one of the LIGRO madmen. He plays bass like none other. Not only using his fingers or thumb, he often utilized other materials such as nail, woodenblock, iron plate, spatula, hammer and so on in his act. Other than that, he often hum in high pitch to give some haunting sound of world music.

While Donny has played together with Adi many times, it was great to see the ‘reunion’ between Budhy and Donny. During the early stage of Donny’s career, it was Budhy who often accompanied him. “We even built Krakatau together.” said Donny. But then they went on separate way. Donny was clearly happy for having Budhy again on his side. “You know, Budhy is a true fusion drummer.” he said.

This quartet got full reinforcement by more artits. The soulful powerhouse diva Dira Sugandi and one of the Salamander Voices (also the background singer of Tulus) Lia Amalia were in charge of vocals. Trumpeter Brury Effendy of Salamander Big Band and the jazz Paganini from Bandung, one of the 4Peniti: Ammy Kurniawan got important roles too. Mouth-watering lineup that for us could stand as a fine representative of Jazz Fusion at its best.

The whole lineup is also perfect to bring the theme of “Absolutely Sensational Fusion” which was set from the beginning by KLCBS.

The venue Prama Grand Preanger is one of the most famous historical buildings. It was once a grocery store but in 1897 it became a hotel, named Preanger Hotel. For over a quarter of a century thie Indische Empire style hotel stood as the symbol of pride of Dutchmen in Bandung. Then in 1929, the hotel was re-decorated by C.P. Wolff Schoemaker with former Indonesia’s first president Ir. Soekarno as his assistant. You can still find the classy art deco nuance in this 5-star hotel until now, both on the structure of the building and the interior. Serving a jazz community gathering inside a historical hotel brought such beautiful vibe which added even more values to it.

The adventurous “Tales from Nauru” and a refreshing track taken from Donny’s first solo album, “Disini ada Kehidupan” titled “Pagimu” gave a beautiful sign that we were about to go deep into fusion. Donny then invited trumpeter Brury Effendi to play Chick Corea’s “Sea Journey”. Brury’s sharp attack was loved by the audience as he got a lot of claps. Right after Brury left the stage, Krishna took over the course with his sparkling melodies. This song kept him busy as well as showing his skill. Budhy’s cool solo drum was the highlight too on this one.

Ammy Kurniawan came on stage. He was set to play Donny’s song “Kano”, but first Donny asked him to play a long solo. He did. Like a wizard he put spell on everyone. If the solo was already magical, his ‘duel’ with Donny doubled it. They flew together exploring the highest terrains, really entertaining as the excitement rose above the roof. They rose the bar higher with “Kano”, a song with high degree of difficulties, yet cleanly executed. The speed, the pace, the adrenaline rush, the dynamics, the precision, all were unbelievable.

Donny Suhendra Band carried on with a song written in 1991 by Donny that finally made its way into the recordings: “The Los Feliz”. It was written after his experience when he went to California with his group JavaJazz (along with Indra Lesmana, Embong Raharjo, AS Mates and Gilang Ramadhan) more than 2 decades ago. This song was the most rockin’ composition for the night. Sharp, edgy, and powerful. This song will appear in Donny Suhendra’s upcoming new album, projected to come in 2015.

Brury Effendi was back again, but this time with Flugelhorn. Ammy Kurniawan too, entering the scene from the audience’s area. They served Hoagy Carmichael’s classic, “The Nearness of You” in sweet fusion. A surprise came in the end since they sealed this song in an odd way, in keroncong style.

Time to hear some vocals. Lia Amalia was the first one, singing her favorite “Feeling Good”, a standard from the mid 60’s, which became popular again in 2005 by Michael Buble. Lia showed an awesome control on her voice, soulful yet bluesy, powerful yet smooth. Wow, what a voice.

She called Dira to replaced her position. She sang a jazz version of R Maladi’s evergreen, “Rangkaian Melati”, in loving memory of her grandparents. After that he cheered everyone up again with a hot samba beat on “Mas Que Nada”. She made the audience sang together while she was dancing just like a Brazilian girl in the carnival.

Donny Suhendra Band served one last instrumental titled “Teen Spirit”, and for the very last song, Lia Amalia sang her song  written by the late artiste Harry Roesli called “Kami Cinta Indonesia”. With this acousticly served song, the whole event was wrapped.

High caliber band, the special force of jazz fusion in Indonesia was able to bring the absolutely sensational fusion for the 4th Jazz Not Jazz gig. If the band was brilliantly formed from these experts, the featuring artists made it shine even more. Another important thing to mention is, eventhough the rain was heavily poured since the late afternoon, plenty of people still came to enjoy the presentation. Thank you KLCBS, BNI and Prama Grand Preanger for this nice fusion gig, until we meet again in the 5th edition next year.

See more pictures:

Reporter: Riandy Kurniawan
Photographer: Mia Damayanti

Ho, ho, ho! Christmas is right around the corner. If you celebrate it, you should already be very excited now since it’s very, very near. Now put jazz in it, won’t you love it even more? Who doesn’t love the jazzy sounds of Christmas. Once a musician said, when jazz and Christmas intersect, his celebration would be truly enhanced. Surely this quote represent many of us who feel the same.

Now let’s talk about Braga Jazz Walk. As a fruit of cooperation between us, Jazzuality.com, Braga City Walk and KPH Music, the event has been showcased 7 times. 6 regular shows (every the second and fourth Thursday of each month) and one special edition in accordance with the culinary fest Bragalicious. Since we are entering the fourth week of December, Braga Jazz Walk is set to go again next Thursday. But hey, what a cool coincidence. If you look at the calenddar,  you will see that next Thursday is exactly fall on 25th of December. For us it was like a sign, a sign that we should make something special. We are. This time, in accordance with the theme of the mall: “The Oldtown Christmas”, the Braga Jazz Walk #07 is set to bring the joyful Christmas spirit to you. Three groups are going to give you that. Jam Session will be available too as always. Braga Jazz Walk: Christmas Edition will be held on 25th December 2014, starting at 7:00 pm at Braga City Walk, Bandung. If you are in Bandung on that date, do come and join us. Nothing to worry, we won’t charge you even a penny. This event is totally FREE and open for public.

Who will be featured this time? First, one of the prestigious Jazz Goes to Campus 2014 consolation prize holder, 5th Avenue. This band consists of 3 lads: Chris Alfeus (guitar), AlbenOctorys (drums), William Anthony (bass) and 1 lady who is also in charge as the manager: Stella Inke (piano). Their playground is somewhere around jazz fusion and smooth jazz. Some of their specialties including brilliant arrangement and the scat singing along with guitar playing on the same note (or at the interval of an octave) by Chris. This made Chris won the Best Guitarist for Jazz Goes to Campus 2014. They have some great original compositions, they do interesting covers of some famous jazz repertoires/songs. This is our time to enjoy Christmas carols from them. Ever wonder how  Christmas songs would sound with guitar-scat-singing in jazz fusion/smooth jazz outfit? Wish to see a neat fusion band that serves smart arrangements, ear-catchy songs that are easy to listen to? 5th Avenue it is.

Out of 7 is a band that places itself in between secular and gospel. All personnels are active praise and worship musicians beside their daily works. We used to call them acrobatic band due to their ‘stunt’ attempt in exploring wide array of genres. The keyboarist Widiyanto Sutanto is the leader who is also in charge of composing the materials. Then, the young but hyperactive lady drummer Marissa Wiguna who has catchy appearance and rich punching variety, guitarist Herman Yulianto and Daniel Christy with their rock-blues colors over jazz and funky bassist Abet Darmaji. Last but not least, the man you’ve seen in every Braga Jazz Walk edition as the MC, Erick Gabe is the vocalist. He has magical gift when it’s about voice. Wide range, perfect pitch, extreme manouvers, scat-singing, mouth-trumpet,trombone, beatbox and so on, you name it, he does it. They have some original songs too (including several contemporary gospel songs), and just like 5th Avenue, they love to surprise us with unique arrangement. Luckily none of them leave Bandung for holiday, we can invite them to fill one slot. We don’t get to see them often anymore nowadays, we’re happy to bring them back again.

For this act Out of 7 will bring some Friends, a vocal harmony group from GKI Maulana Yusuf consists of Norama Herty Yunieke, Mutiyani Repie, Lela Yuliantika Kawareh and Ferdi Hendarman. A vocal harmony group will surely enrich the Christmas Edition, we believe so.

Then, speaking of GKI Maulana Yusuf, here comes the last band to highlight: MY Kids. MY stands for Maulana Yusuf, the name of the street where their church stands. This band consists of kids from 12-16 years of age including Billy (drum), Panji (bass), Adam (electric guitar), Korin and Miguel (acoustic guitar), Yugo (conga), Ferdi (keyboard), Louis Arnita and Syela (vocals). My Kids was built from the children of the church’s Sunday School who apparently have talents in music. It began only with acoustic guitar but then grew with more kids coming in. They have began their service since April 2011 and has been serving twice a month ever since. Cute performance will be just one aspect to expect, because usually children can surprise you with their all out ‘nothing to loose’ way of performing.

As we’ve mentioned earlier, jam session will be provided as usual. You can be on stage and play any song you like with the other players, but we expect some Christmas songs too. Just bring your gear and come, the stage is open for  one.

Christmas celebration is going to be colorful, served under the Braga Jazz Walk #07: Special Christmas Edition on 25th of December. Plenty of songs, plenty of styles. From swing to bop to fusion to smooth jazz, from full band to children ensemble to vocal harmony group, from full music and singing, instrumental and acapella, all wish to make your Christmas celebration and holiday season merrier than ever. Talks about the harmonious relationship between jazz and Christmas that has been walking side by side for decades, the Braga Jazz Walk is ready to bring that up in this special 7th edition. We may have no snow, but we do have jazz. So, do you wish for jazzy Christmas? Come and let’s celebrate with us.

Braga Jazz Walk #07: Special Christmas Edition

Date: Thursday, December 25, 2014
Time: 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Location: Braga Jazz Walk
Jl. Braga 99 – 101, Bandung

FREE EVENT!

Featuring:

:: 5th Avenue ::
Chris Alfeus (guitar)
Stella Inke (piano)
AlbenOctorys (drums)
William Anthony (bass)

:: Out of 7 ::
Widiyanto Sutanto (keyboard)
Marissa Wiguna (drums)
Erick Gabe (vocals)
Herman Yulianto/Daniel Christy (guitar)
Abet Darmaji (bass)
+
Vocal Harmony Group:
Norama Herty Yunieke, Mutiyani Repie, Lela Yuliantika Kawareh and Ferdi Hendarman

:: MY Kids ::
Billy (drum)
Panji (bass)
Adam (electric guitar)
Korin and Miguel (acoustic guitar) Yugo (conga)
Ferdi (keyboard)
Louis Arnita and Syela (vocals).

As 2014 comes to a close, the jazz calendar in Bangalore comes to a climax with a range of outstanding acts at venues such as The B-Flat Bar! The featured bands include a number of local and international artistes, covering a range of styles: straight-ahead jazz, fusion, Indo-jazz, blues-rock and electro-jazz.

Here are some of the groups who delighted jazz fans this year at B-Flat, and I had the good fortune to check out many of them performing live! See also my earlier article, Big Bang Blues, 4th Element, Sean Rolden: A New Generation of Blues and Jazz in India.

Jovol ‘Bam Bam’ Bell

Phenomenally-talented drummer Jovol Bell has played with Stanley Clarke, Herbie Hancock, John McLaughlin, Jack Dejohnette, Miles Davis, Joe Sample, and many other jazz greats. The Texan drummer, a Berklee College graduate, was joined by Parker McAllister (bass), Kavyesh Kaviraj (keys), Mark Aranha (guitar) and Vasundhara Vee (vocals). Bell describes his music as ‘New Era,’ which with elements of jazz, gospel, salsa and even hip-hop. The set in Bangalore was an outstanding collaboration, with soaring vocals and scatting by Vasundhara and tight coordination between Jovol and Parker. Vasundhara Vidalur and Adil Manuel are the frontliners of the Indian blues band Adil&Vasundhara, and have released the album Ampersand.

Jyotsna Srikanth http://www.indianviolin.eu/

Indian violinist Dr. Jyotsna Srikanth, now based in London, performed a fusion set of carnatic violin blended with Western folk and classical. She was joined by Shadrach Solomon on keyboards and Manjunath N.S. on drums; the trio covered a wide range of musical territory and drew loud applause for their cross-cultural creativity. Jyotsna has also collaborated with the French Jazz Quartet, flamenco guitarist Eduardo Niebla, Portuguese singer Vitorino and Brazilian bassist Mario Caribe. She has collaborated on movie soundtracks with musical directors from South India such as Hamsalekha and Ilayaraja. Her albums include Call of Bangalore and Life.

Malcolm Braff www.malcolmbraff.net

Swiss pianist Malcolm Braff has a wide range of musical influences from Brazil, Cape Verde, Senegal and India. He has collaborated with djembe player Yaya Ouattara and French jazz trumpeter Erik Truffaz. Braff’s albums include Voltage, Benares, Yay, Methane, Walkabout, Maximal Music, Yele and Live in Lausanne. On his India tour of spiritually-inspired soul-jazz, he was joined by Reggie Washington (bass) and Stéphane Galland (drums).

Divine Raaga http://www.divineraaga.com

Divine Raaga is a Hindi folk-fusion band based out of Bangalore. Their debut album is titled I’m Divine Raaga. Most of the tracks are based on Hindustani ragas. The current lineup includes Buddhabrata Chakravorty (or Buddha, on vocals), Rahul (guitars), Mrinal (drums), Ashish (bass), Prithwin (flute), Ashraf (guitars) and Kishore (keyboards). Formed in 2009, the group’s songs are also about causes, such as cross-border brotherhood, inter-faith unity, and the importance of hope and nature.

Paban Das Baul

Paban Das Baul is a leading proponent of Baul folk music of West Bengal, and has evolved a unique genre of folk-fusion music. The vocalist also plays local percussion and string instruments such as ektara, dubki, dotara and khamak. He was joined by his wife Mimlu Sen (bells, cymbals), Lew Hilt (bass), Satish Sharma (acoustic guitar) and Tanmoy Pan (cajon). Based in France, Paban Das Baul has played across Europe and Asia, and released the albums Real Sugar, Inner Knowledge and State of Bengal. Baul music praises the divine love, and draws from a range of traditions including Tantrism and Sufism. Two musicians from the fusion band Aghor opened the evening’s performance: Jataveda Banerjee (singer-songwriter) and Nikhmal Gartuala (guitarist-composer from Kathmandu).

Chandbibi and the Waste Candidates

Bangalore-based band Chandbibi and the Waste Candidates released their debut album Tidy Funk at B-Flat in October. They blend jazz, electronica, progressive rock, Latin and Carnatic music. The lineup consists of Mana Dhanraj (vocals), Sidhant Jain (guitar), Kavita Sarna (bass) and Navneet Rao (drums). The musicians met at the Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music. The tracks What Have We Become? and Moonlight drew loud applause at their B-Flat performance, and the band also played at The Humming Tree.

Indian Blue http://indianblue.org

Indian Blue is a talented fusion band founded by Shiraz Ali Khan on sarod, with a phenomenal family tradition in Indian classical music as great grandson of legendary Acharya Baba Allauddin Khan, grandson of late Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, and son of late Dhyanesh Khan. He began experimenting with other sounds as well, and founded the fusion band, Indian Blue, in 2002. He is accompanied by Dishari Chakraborty (santoor), Arindam Bhattacharya (Indian vocals), Debjeet Ghosh (English vocals), Santanu Borah (rhythm guitar), Ronodeep Bose (lead guitar), Avijit Sarkar (drums), Ranjan De (tabla) and Shovon Mukherjee (bass). The haunting sound of the sarod coupled with Indian vocals and Western instruments makes for a marked contrast as well as smooth blend.

Parvaaz www.parvaazmusic.com

Parvaaz was founded in 2010 by Khalid Ahmed (vocals, acoustic guitar) and Kashif Iqbal (electric guitar) from Kashmir, and is based in Bangalore. They are accompanied by Sachin Banandur (drums) and Fidel D’souza (bass), and have performed their blend of blues and rock along with lyrics in Hindi, Urdu and Kashmiri in festivals across India. The youthful band’s debut CD, Baran, is named after the Persian word for rain, and is a soul-searching album about seeking truth in an increasingly materialistic and greedy world. In a sign of the times, the album was entirely crowdfunded with the help of 96 contributors. Their set in Bangalore was their last one of the year, and climaxed with the superbly-textured tracks Colour White and Roz Roz featuring Khalid’s soaring vocals and a superb bass solo by Fidel.

Other Indian blues bands that have performed at B-Flat include Hoodoo Gas, whose lineup has included Ananth Menon (lead guitar and vocals), Snehal Pinto (bass), Deepak Raghu (drums) and Vasudev Prabhu (harmonica). Mumbai-based Kabir Café also played to a full-house, with a blend of folk, rock and the philosophy of mystic poet and saint Kabir. The band is founded by Neeraj Arya (vocals, guitar), Raman Iyer (mandolin), Mukund Ramaswamy (violin) and Viren Solanki (drums).

Folk-rock was also showcased in B-Flat by the band Lagori, named after a popular South Indian street game based on striking a pile of seven stones. Their urban sound combines Indian classical melodies with rock music. The lineup includes Tejas Shankar (vocals), Geeth Vaz (guitar), Edward Rasquinha (guitar), Shalini Mohan (bass) and Vinyl Kumar (drums).

B-Flat’s programming on Wednesdays has featured DJ Unnayanaa (Prashanth Pallemoni) who blends Afro, funk, soul, electronic and experimental sounds. We look forward to another terrific lineup of bands at B-Flat and other Bangalore venues in 2015 already!

Written by Madanmohan Rao
Editor & DJ, World Music and Jazz; Bangalore
Global Correspondent for Jazzuality.com

“Speaking of jazz, of all season, I think Christmas is the best season for it.” That’s what a musician told us a while ago, expressing how happy he feels during Christmas season. Well, Christmas and Jazz have been buddies for many decades, probably right after the birth of jazz. Many people enjoyed it throughout the years, today we still enjoy it. Think of how many pop artists go swingy when they sing Christmas carols. Christmas and jazz, they are hardly separable.

Braga Jazz Walk has reached the 7th edition. What a pleasant coincidence that this year’s Christmas actually fell on the fourth Thursday of December, exactly on our regular shedule. That made us able to bring our Christmas Edition right on the special day. For this special edition, we set our mind towards the variety of jazz that would make the best of Christmas celebration. Smooth jazz, swing, fusion, bebop? Checked. Traditional, modern, soulful? Checked. Full band, instrumental, with vocals and just vocals in harmony alias acapella? Checked too. From adult to children? Yes, that too. Together with our partners in crime, the venue Braga City Walk and KPH Music, we, Jazzuality.com proudly presented this edition that suit the theme of the mall: The Oldtown Christmas. What made us even more proud is that we got to celebrate it with many audience. Some came to watch it, some were the mall-goers. Together they created a joyous atmosphere inside the big hall.

The band consists of children age ranging from 12-16 called MY Kids were first. MY stands for Maulana Yusuf, the name of the street where their church stands. Billy (drum), Panji (bass), Adam (electric guitar), Korin and Miguel (acoustic guitar), Yugo (conga), Ferdi (keyboard), Louis Arnita and Syela (vocals) were found inside this team. MY Kids was formed from the GKI’s Sunday School who apparently have talents in music. They started only with acoustic guitar but then grew with more kids coming in. They have began their service since April 2011 and has been serving twice a month ever since.

Dream of cheerful Christmas celebration? The kids wanted to bring exactly that. “Allah Sumber Kuatku” was the first choice. This happy opening soon followed by “Sebab Tuhan Baik” and GMB’s “Tiba Saatnya ” which nicely included Sundanese music and singing style.  “Hark the Herald Angel Sing” was delivered in quite difficult rendition but executed perfectly by these kids.

It’s always fascinating to see the kids play music. They are cute, but the way the perform, which usually are all out with ‘nothing to loose’ spirit can create surprises. The same with these kids. They are still at their teens, but they can entertain people already, as well as share the blessings. This is why we exist. The reason why we make Braga Jazz Walk in first place: to push the regeneration process forward, providing playground for the young ones to practice everything they learnt in front of real audience. We send love to MY Kids. Keep up the good work, kids! Don’t stop using your gifts to bless others.

The second session was filled by one of the prestigious Jazz Goes to Campus 2014 consolation prize holder, 5th Avenue. This band consists of  a couple Chris Alfeus (guitar) and Stella Inke (piano), plus two more compatriotes AlbenOctorys (drums) and William Anthony (bass). Their playground is somewhere around jazz fusion and smooth jazz. Some of their specialties including brilliant arrangement and the scat singing along with guitar playing on the same note (or at the interval of an octave) by Chris. It brought Chris to win the Best Guitarist for Jazz Goes to Campus 2014 less than a month ago. They have some great original compositions, they do interesting covers of some famous jazz repertoires/songs. But here we got the chance to taste their Christmas menus. and man, it was delicious.

“Winter Wonderland” was served in GRP’s Smooth Jazz style. “Joy to The World” was served in more rockin’ style, Still keeping the groove but in slower rhythm, the band delivered “White Christmas” in medley with “Let It Snow”.  Chris demonstrated his scat-singing style while playing guitar in perfect pitch.  A lovely original song titled “Abba” was played sweetly before they ended up rockin’ on “Joyful Joyful”.

A fusion style of Christmas was served classy by 5th Avenue. We have tasted their unpredictably complex arrangement over well known songs, we enjoyed it too when they take the simplicity road. They are not agressive on stage, but they know how to grab people’s attention and make them stay until it’s done. Speaking of Christmas, they took some of the most famous songs and put up fresh colorful outfit on it. Once again a solid package from them, being given just like a beautifully wrapped Christmas gift.

For the final act, we invited a band that delivers jazz with action, the Out of 7. The band places their feet in between secular and gospel. The personnels are active praise and worship musicians beside their daily works. We used to call them acrobatic band due to their ‘stunt’ attempt in exploring wide array of genres. The keyboarist Widiyanto Sutanto is the leader who is also in charge of composing the materials. Then, the young but hyperactive lady drummer Marissa Wiguna who has catchy appearance and rich punching variety, guitarist Herman Yulianto and Daniel Christy with their rock-blues colors over jazz and funky bassist Abet Darmaji. Last but not least, the man you’ve seen in every Braga Jazz Walk edition as the MC, Erick Gabe is the vocalist. This man has a magical vocal ability. Wide range, perfect pitch, extreme manouvers, scat-singing, mouth-trumpet,trombone, beatbox and so on, you name it, he does it. Today the band has original songs (including several contemporary gospel songs). They have won the Espose 2013 band competition and landed on JakJazz 2013.

Before the band appeared in complete team, first a trio called Harmony consists of  Norama Herty Yunieke, Mutiyani Repie and Lela Yuliantika Kawareh gave an acapella presentation titled “The Lord’s Prayer”.  A vocal harmony group is an important subject in making up Christmas Edition,  so we’re happy to have these three ladies taking on this part. After that, a duet between Lela Yuliantika Kawareh and Fredi Hendarman sang “What a Wonderful World” accompanied by Widiyanto Sutanto.

Then Out of 7 got their round. The band kicked off with “Gloria (in Exelcis Deo)”. Blues shone with “Amazing Grace” and then the swingy “Winter Winterland” with a little piece of Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry Be Happy” in the middle. Their original song “Sang Penerus Dunia” with a sharp rockin’ style and then sealed it up with “Spain” . This last song was served in jamming mood with enough solo run from each of the players.

We haven’t seen them for a while, but they are still carrying the same spirit in even more enhanced skills. Composition is still their forte while the manouvers created such attraction that’s fun and entertaining. Since they are building their career in both secular and gospel, let’s wish them the best. One thing for sure, with the way they play, surely they can really spice up both world.

The jam session was opened shortly after and quickly taken by some of the attending musicians. Chris Alfeus and William Anthony of 5th Avenue was back  again, also Widiyanto Sutanto and Marissa Wiguna of Out of 7. Then three members of Talking Jazz: Steven (piano), Billy (saxophone) and Jabez (guitar) also took part. On vocals were three men from the audience: Mr Simon singing “White Christmas”, Alex from Timor Leste took on “Karena Cinta” and Prof. Dr. Amri Amir, SpF, SH from Medan sang The Beatles’ “Yesterday”.  One singer from MyKids Louis was back too with “The Christmas Song”.  It was already 10:30 pm, still we got one more batch singing Michael Buble’s “Home”. Rizky Jonathan (vocal), Andre Fernando (guitar) and Yosua Setiawan (bass) were the last participants.

We started the jazz community event in the first month of 2014, now we have reached the last presentation for this year in Braga City Walk. We have run more than 20 editions and so far presented musicians from Bandung, Jakarta, Sukabumi, Bali and also from Malaysia, France, USA and Australia, plus the more recent, Timor Leste. There are many things we still have to work on, but so far we are happy and satisfied with the way things are. The regeneration process is on going. We have met and provided familiar playground to so many newcomers ranging from solo to full bands, welcoming the well established and experienced musicians/bands that wished to support the new players and presenting unique formation/combination that are rarely found in today’s stages.

It feels good to end our 2014 series with a joyful Christmas Edition. Such happening crowds, such joyful performers. The variation was on top since this edition contained many styles from swing, bebop, fusion, soulful to even rock, presented instrumentally, with vocals and acapella by adults and early teenagers. As for the age, this edition stood above all because the range was unbelievably wide, from 12 to 73 year-old.

As the disintegration is taking place here and there by some people, we do hope jazz can stand as a great tool to promote peace and unity among people and nations, making it appears as an example of peaceful, full-loving and tolerance world. On behalf of everyone in Jazzuality.com and Braga Jazz Walk, let us wish you Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy Holiday to you all. Let there be peace on earth and joy to the world.

Watch the highlight:

See more pictures:

Reporter: Riandy Kurniawan
Photographer: Titus Firmanto
Video Editor: Vierna Mariska Kurniawan

The Braga Jazz Walk ended its 2014 series with a joyful Christmas Edition. Many performers, guests and participants, ranging from 12 to 73 years old were there to celebrate and enjoy the season’s holiday together. Now we have entered the new year of 2015. Some people take it as a hard year to get through, but for us, what’s important is to give our best in everything we do. As for the Braga Jazz Walk, happy to announce that the cooperation between us, Jazzuality.com and two partners, Braga City Walk and KPH Music continues on; and we are determined to sail full speed. Since the second Thursday of January falls on 8th, that means the Braga Jazz Walk should also be ready to present the 8th edition. Are we? Yes, of course. We are going to give a strong start by featuring three highly potential young dudes in their attempt to pursue their solo careers. Curious to know them? Scroll down and read their brief profiles.

Fearman

First, meet Fearman. We first met him as the vocalist of Poinkustik, a band that has graced so many cafes, malls and restos since its establishment in 2009. As once a senior musician told us that the oldest instrument is the human voice, you would be amazed to see how powerful voice can be through some really gifted singers. Fearman (Firman) is able to sing anything he wants, in just about any styles he wishes.

Firmansyah, his real name, was born in musical family. His father is one of Sundanese artiste in Bandung. He already started playing instrument since he was still in junior high school. He jumped into the music scene since 1999 by being a choir and private vocal teacher. He studied at Pasundan University (UNPAS) taking classical guitar as his major. Establishing a band would be next, rooting in progressive genre. He competed in some festivals in Bandung and reached final, for example the Asian Beat 2002. He has appeared on TVRI and IMTV. Poinkustik is his current active group.

Performing as himself, Fearman will be supported by TNT (real name: Tinto Arief Anugrah), a guitarist inspired by Guns N’ Roses’ guitar player, Slash. Just like Fearman, TNT has bagged some achievements too such as the Best Performance at LA Lights Music Enjoy.

Back to Fearman, aside from his singing ability, let us remind you that he has charm and charisma. We have seen how he stole the attention of some mall-goers or cafe guests even before he started singing. If you haven’t heard him yet, here’s his soundcloud: https://m.soundcloud.com/fearmans . It’s about time for him to establish a solid ground for his solo career, and we are more than happy to provide it.

Guntur Satria

When playing as one of the GFRtrio, Guntur Satria is a wild blues cat, playing the role of cheeky, hyperactively playful, very attractive and full of surprise musician. But as a solo performer apparently he has a different concept. He chooses to be a one man band. He sings, he plays guitar and sometimes equipped with harp too. As a solo performer he digs his romantic side much deeper. From what we previously seen, he is much calmer and appears more folkish, but still has some sharp blues and jazz patterns here and there. You can check some of his solo sessions in his Soundcloud (https://soundcloud.com/gunturblues).

We have invited him as a single fighter at the Terraz Jazz 11 (http://jazzuality.com/jazz-event-report/terraz-jazz-11-the-report/), but it was 5 months ago. Currently he’s working on his EP, consists of 5 tracks. As he’s busy in the studio, it’s time to invite him again and be updated. Hey may be alone, but as usual, he will be fully connected to the audience and happily inserted some real-life stories during his show.

Amo
‘Jazztortion’

Ever wonder how will it be when a rocker with his electric guitar does jazz? Well, for sure, this man named Amo is one of a kind. Plenty of rockers play jazz once in a while, that’s correct, but it’s rare to see a man still keeps all the distortion and slashes his guitar like a metal pro yet jazz can be clearly captured during his play along with vicious heavy metal riffs complete with rebelious distortion. That scene happened a couple of times on our stage. Yes, Amo has been featured in our event, but so far only as one of the personnels of a band or supporting player. This time Amo will represent his true-self. Prepare for the madness, the music where jazz is served with rock and distortion, or ‘Jazztortion’, the way we called it.

According to Amo, he has been into rock, heavy metal and thrash since his early years, listening to bands like Megadeth, Anthrax, Slayer and the likes. He learned guitar and began to take it seriously when he reached seventeen years of age. He hatched in no time, standing tall as an open minded (and rebelious) musician with authentic rockitude. His killer instict is sharp and often makes his guitar like a blade. Last November he performed with double guitar for the very first time. Let’s hope he’ll bring it to this event. Hadi (rhythm guitar), Andi Pramudito (drums) and Robert (bass) are his friends to support. This dude is sensational, he will steal your attention the minute he steps on stage and blow your mind when he’s in action.

As usual, the jam session will be totally available after the showcases. If you wish to join the party, you can just come and jump right in.

We believe this is going to be another interesting edition. All great male performers with charm, charisma and skill in their attempt to pursue their solo career. From pop, jazz, blues to rock, all will be served differently by them. We are excited and ready to start this program in 2015. Still plenty to show, still many to feature and still a lot to share. Join us and let’s have a good time together. Ngabaraga, Ngariung, Ngajazz!

Braga Jazz Walk #8

Date: December 11, 2014
Time: 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Location: Braga Jazz Walk
Jl. Braga 99 – 101, Bandung

FREE EVENT!

Featuring:

:: AMO “Jazztortion” ::
Amo (guitar)
Hadi (rhythm guitar)
Robert (bass)
Andi (drums)

:: GUNTUR SATRIA ::
Guntur Satria (vocals/guitar)

:: FEARMAN ::
Firman (vocal)
TNT (guitar)

Braga Jazz Walk opened up its second year of service with interesting theme. This first one in 2015 a.k.a 8th edition featured notable musicians/singers from groups which have participated in our events earlier who are currently trying to establish their solo career. As we are committed to the regeneration process of jazz (related) musicians in Bandung, channeling the potential talents becomes crucial. So we are happy that the first Braga Jazz Walk in 2015 actually highlighted this matter.  We are also proud to have Braga City Walk and KPH Music still fully supporting this regular program.

Three names, more than three players and many jamming participants were in. Each slot has its own persona where different styles successfully caught the attention of people spotted in the venue. Some came to watch, the others were mall-goers who were there during the event, they got sucked in to see the musical concept these gifted young artists wished to offer. There were blues, folk and rock/heavy metal found in this edition along with assorted jazz as the main dish. Some were joyful, sweet and cool, but some were sharp and rebellious, like a strike of slashing blade. The audience loved it, so did we.

This 8th edition kicked off with a one man band, Guntur Satria. We knew him from his catchy naughty blues trio called the GFRtrio. With GFRtrio he appears as a wild, expressive (and explosive) bluesman who knows how to burn the stage with so many unpredictable moves. He’s much calmer when he’s all alone, yet his charisma still allowed him to shine.

Sam Smith’s “I’m Not the Only One” was first, followed by a gem from 1969,  “Across the Universe” originally recorded by The Beatles. The Beatles  presented it in psychedelic folk  with rich musical structure, Guntur respected it yet he infused his own soul into the song. Then he played his original song “Kala Rindu” which will be available when his EP’s finished. This song has the tasty indie content that’s loved by majority of young music listeners today in Indonesia, we believe this song has enough power to achieve success once it enters the market. Another The Beatles’ classic was perfectly covered by him, it’s called “Blackbird”. The freshness of country side was all over this one.  He then chose to seal his performance with a song that’s meaningful for him, “Englishman in New York.” The audience sang the reffrain several times together with him.

You can visit his Soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/gunturblues to listen to some of his tracks. Currently he’s working on his EP titled “Pergi Keluar” which consists of 5 tracks. Billy Ramdhani is featured in the album, and Sarasvati’s said to be on one track too. We are happy to steal him again from his studio activities and get the update. All looks good. The way he let himself connected with the audience, the songs which speak about his real life story, the ability to write and compose, he has it all. Not many young lad could take the one man band road and have success, but Guntur surely can. No doubt about that.

The second session was taken by Fearman. This man is not an ordinary singer since he can sing all kind of styles as he wishes. He can go sweet and simple, he can give flawless manouvers in perfect pitch. He can climb the highest octave easily, he can reach the low keys without problem. He can climb the highest note like a rock star but he can also croon the way Michael Buble does. We have enjoyed his performance with his band Poinkustik a few months ago, but now he’s thinking of building his solo career as well, and we’re more than happy to provide him the ground.

Like we told you in the info article, he performed with a rock guitarist named TNT (Tinto Arief Anugrah). He was supposed to have a full band backing him, but since he didn’t get the available musicians, he decided to march on only with TNT. For us it was a blessing in disguise, since with minimalist concept we can enjoy his talent much clearer. Especially since both of them have bagged many achievements during their career and the good chemistry between them, their session was really enjoyable.

Andre Hehanussa’s “Bidadari” was the first song in medley with Koes Plus’ “Jemu”. TNT was done tremendous work on guitar by flying wild from country to blues. Next was “Esok Kan Masih Ada”, one of the signature songs of Utha Likumahuwa delivered in sweet, romantic mood.  Then they took surprising choice, “Kantoi”.  This funny song of Zee Avi with brilliant lyrics that’s written in Manglish (a cross between Malay and English) sounded cool from Fearman, TNT was kept busy with his country guitar playing. His original song “Demi Kamu” delivered sweet and romantic. For the last song he gave Michael Buble’s medley including “Home”, “Feeling Good”, “I Just Haven’t Met You Yet” and “Save the Last Dance For Me”.

As we said, this man can sing just about anything. But we are happy that he took the jazz lane for his solo debut. A voice like him would be great to sing with big band, but perfect too with minimalist concept like this one. He’s still at the good age, he’s like prince charming on stage with all the good vibes surrounding him. There are many guys can sing, but not so many have the singing skills like him. It was a nice collaboration with TNT, simple yet rich.

The last session was filled with madness. This lad has never failed to surprise us everytime he appeared on our stage. He was called Conka by his friends before, but now he’s settled with Amo. His rocking spirit has been built since early age and grew up with such bands like Megadeth, Anthrax and Slayer. He likes to keep all the distortion and slashes his guitar like a metal pro yet jazz can be clearly captured during his play. Vicious heavy metal riffs complete with rebelious distortion now blended with jazz, the genre that he’s started digging not too long ago, about a year and a half. Can jazz go with rock distortion? Amo said why not. Tonight he gave a solid proof that it indeed works. Jazz with rock and distortion, we called it ‘Jazztortion’.

Together with his friends including Andi Pramudito (drums), Robert Daniel (bass) and Hadi (rhythm guitar), Amo roared right from the start with three songs:  Andy Timmons’ “Groove or Die”, Lee Ritenour’s “Rio Funk” and Eric Johnson’s “Zap”.  Amo still kept the heavy metal sound roared wild on stage but he clearly brought in some cool groove and good doses of jazz. His team mates Andi, Robert and Hadi gave such substantial work in supporting Amo’s attacks.

Jazz and rock have been on of the most exciting adventurous style that we have had in last century and combined/fused until they created some hybrids. We have enjoyed it for many decades, but apparently there are still areas left to explore. What Amo does is simple. He tries to enter the ‘new’ territory while still keeping everything real, holding in his pure rock spirit. The result is somewhat interesting. Yes, playing jazz with electric guitar along with distortion have been done by some artists, but Amo still offers something fresh and different by pushing the jazz-rock holy matremony into the far edge. So edgy until you forget to breath. Amo is dangerous when he’s running loose. If he keeps doing this path, he may even create a new hybrid. Absolutely sensational and distinctively unique.

Jam Session was open, but first it was taken by a young talented man who visited us for the first time. His real name is Rizky Ahmad Mudzakkir, but he likes to be known as Izky Mudza. This man is talented in singing and playing guitar, plus he can write songs. What’s also cool from him is the way he control his performance. He enjoyed every second of his moment and shared it to the audience. Oh yeah, he’s also cool when he put his voice into falsetto.  Just two songs but memorable, how happy it is to spot great new talent.

Then three players of Find Taste took position on piano, guitar and mike. Erick, Puspallia Panggabean and Andhika Caesar of Imagodeo did scat party and some mouth trumpet/trombone.  The photo session took place during this act, and that’s the end of the show.

Cool stuff was found right from the first minute. All headlines for this 8th edition has something in common: are the key player in their group, but now they take another further step to establish their solo career. They have skills, highly talented and full of charisma, the thing that’s urgently needed if one wishes to pursue a solo career. They can turn the game differently, they are passionate and have something different to offer. We are happy to be able to provide the reliable ground for them. For all the musicians who showed up, we really appreciate your coming, hope you will make this community event become your own home. And to the happening crowds, thank you so much and look forward to have your support furthermore.

Watch the highlight on our Youtube channel:

In two weeks from now we will feature more bands, including a very mind-bending project where you can find progressive jazz and mystical ethnics pulsing strong in every note. Until then, take care and keep jazzin’.

See more pictures:

Reporter: Riandy Kurniawan
Photographer: Titus Firmanto
Video Editor: Vierna Mariska Kurniawan

Some people thought jazz is all about cozy, relaxing, nice and easy tunes. Some others thought that its the kind of music that’s difficult to listen, full of complexity, puzzling and hard to chew. Then, there are people who demand vocalists most specifically ladies, ask them to sing love songs and describe it as jazz. Don’t we see many venues have it in their perspective? The truth is, there are more than 70 hybrids or sub genres of jazz today, from those pop-ish, the nice and easy, the mainstream, the modern and traditional, up to the loud, rebelious sides jazz wich often deliver with distortion the way rock stars do. Well, we can find jazz everywhere, and jazz can be played in whatever style. You can have it with modern, western instruments, but you can also present it by using local traditional instruments. Or the combination. Et cetera. One thing you have to know is jazz is a dynamic, progressive music that’s keep growing, expanding and giving birth to many new hybrids. It was like that, it still is now.

At this Braga Jazz Walk we have many homeworks. On the surface, just like any other music event, we are doing our best to provide jazz-tertainment which is accessible and free of charge. But underneath that mission, we are dealing with the regeneration process of jazz (related) musicians, trying to invite the young players to try playing this music while at the same time providing playground for the jazz musicians to perform. Then, we also have to introduce the wide variety of jazz, showing how open jazz actually is toward the other genre and all the possibilities that can be brought inside thi particular music. This event should become the destination for those who need to promo themselves and/or their latest work and certainly a reliable source if one need some talents for their event. In the end, we wish Braga Jazz Walk to be a comfortable home for anyone, from jazz fans, musicians and music lovers in general. Together with our partners in crime Braga CityWalk and KPH Music, we are commited to bring it all on.

Here we come to the Braga Jazz Walk #09. Who will be there under the spotlight this time? First, let’s see a kid prodigy who we found by surprise when we visited Venche Music School last year. At that time he was having a class with Mr Mochamad Yahya Salam who directed him very well into jazz. His name is Kafin Sulthan Reviera, still 10 years old but you’ll be surprise when you see him on stage. This boy can sing very well while playing piano, and he can draw like a pro too. You can see how great he can play and sing here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ge5WCnn2MCU or when he did vocalese jazz with Indra Aziz https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkAS5x6swPA.

Kafin is still a boy, but he’s not an ordinary kid. He’s pursuing his formal study by taking homeschooling, level third grade of Junior High School. Musically speaking, he has taken vocal lesson since 5 year-old and digged jazz on piano 3 years after. He starred in Mira Lesmana and Riri Riza’s Laskar Pelangi, Musical Drama Theatre in 2012. Then, he joined Erwin Gutawa’s ‘Above Average’ kids project which is currently in the process of recordings and concert. More, Kafin is now busy doing singing and coreo practice for Disney. Yes, Kafin is a part of Mickey Mouse Club Indonesia that will be aired on Disney Channel this year. When we invited him last year to perform at the tryout of Terraz Jazz, he successfully wowed everyone (read the report here: http://jazzuality.com/jazz-event-report/citylink-jazz-n-jam-terazzo-jazz-the-report/). At that time, he said that jazz is actually his thing. Last August he went to Bali International Jazz Summer School and now the ‘enhanced’ Kafin is more than happy to show his progress at Braga Jazz Walk. Do come early, because he’s going to appear first. You have to see him, seriously.

The second to mention is a jazz trio named Etudiant (French word for ‘student’). This interesting trio consists of female jazz pianist Tiurma Tizadya Ramadhani Siregar and two active personnels of Isola Jazz: Ilham Septia Inda Nugraha (bass) and Galih Cahya Nugraha (drums). The band was formed not too long ago in October 2014, but they are definitely not a newbie. Experienced in every corner, they can spin any songs including those with difficult arrangements. We don’t see many jazz trio anymore, so we put high hope to this one. They played at the fourth edition last November, it’s time to reinvite them again and see what’s new from them. If you’re looking for a jazz trio with good chemistry, this one’s worth to check.

We haven’t featured fusion jazz ethnic for quite some times. So now it’s a perfect time to invite Hariring, a Sundanese word meaning humming or sing gently). Hariring is a cool, unique and creative ensemble who collaborates modern and traditional musics, from Jazz, Blues, Rock, Fusion, Soul, Dance to the traditional West Java Sundanese music. Not just the sound, but also the instruments. They do use the modern, western instruments like electric bass, fretless, piano, keyboard, synthesizer but also some traditionals including angklung, suling (bamboo flute), kolintang and bonang (a row of small, horizontally-laid gongs that function melodically), kacapi (Sundanese zither-like instrument), saron (a set of seven bronze bars placed on top of a resonating frame) and kendang (the double-headed drums) among others, plus some samplings.

The ensemble consists of daring musicians who understand how to carry this concept including Ringga Hardika (electric bass, fretless electric bass, piano, keyboard, synthesizer, angklung, suling, gamelan sampling, percussive sampling and live programming), Ares Rudhiansyah (kendang, suling, ethnic percussions),  Resya “Eca” Firmansyah (Kolintang awi, kacapi, angklung, bass, bonang, saron), Asep Everbeat (cajon, percussions), Toni Besot (kendang), also featuring Fregian (lyrics) and Athu (sinden: traditional Javanese/Sundanese vocal). If you want to know them better, you can visit this page http://ringgahardika.webs.com/hariring or http://ringgahardika.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-hariring.html. By visiting those sites you can hear the songs, you can watch their videos or even, download their 1st album, Fall in West for free.

As usual, jam session will be provided after the showcases. Anyone can join in, whether you are jazz musicians, students or even someone who wish to experience playing some jazz on stage.

We believe this is going to be an interesting. A kid prodigy, a solid jazz trio and unique ethno-jazz fusion are going to spice this 9th edition. We hope you all can join and have a jazzy party with us. No event will last without the audience, and it certainly won’t work without participation of musicians. Therefore we need your support too in order to keep this event running. If you live or happen to be in Bandung next week on Thursday (January 22, 2015), do come and enjoy the show.

Braga Jazz Walk #9

Date: January 22, 2015
Time: 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Location: Braga Jazz Walk
Jl. Braga 99 – 101, Bandung

FREE EVENT!

Featuring:

:: KAFIN ::
Kafin Sulthan Reviera (vocals/piano)

:: ETUDIANT ::
Tiurma Tizadya Ramadhani Siregar (piano)
Ilham Septia Inda Nugraha (bass)
Galih Cahya Nugraha (drums)

:: HARIRING ::
Ringga Hardika (electric bass, fretless electric bass, piano, keyboard, synthesizer, angklung, suling, gamelan sampling, percussive sampling and live programming)
Ares Rudhiansyah (kendang, suling, ethnic percussions)
Resya “Eca” Firmansyah (Kolintang awi, kacapi, angklung, bass, bonang, saron)
Asep Everbeat (cajon, percussions), Toni Besot (kendang)
also featuring:
Fregian (lyrics)
Athu (sinden: traditional Javanese/Sundanese vocal)

Guitar as a Jazz instrument

In our history of popular music, an Electric Guitar is an instrument that is still very much in infancy comparing to piano or brass and horn instruments. During Jazz’s early days, banjo was much more popular not only because it’s more easily obtainable but the sound was loud enough to cut through the brass section of an early New Orleans Jazz bands. So, that’s one of the reasons why you won’t find a guitar playing with a marching band in New Orleans.

Only at the beginning of the swing era craze in the 1930s, the guitar expands its endeavour to popularity as a part of the main rhythm section. Used primarily to thicken up the sound of a rhythm section on orchestras and Jazz big band, its main function was a comping instrument that commonly accentuates the quarter notes along with the double bass’ walking bass line. Hence we came upon the boom-chick rhythm term. That’s when you get a bass player to play notes (“boom”) on beats 1 and 3 and (“chick”) is the sound of the rhythm guitarist emphasising on beats 2 and 4.

When Swing era reaches its pinnacle in the 30’s, bigger venues were needed to accommodate those lindyhoppers and teenyboppers. So when the band format got larger, the guitarist needs extra volume to match the rest of the band. An electric guitar with amplification is an indispensable solution. When Les Paul created the first electric guitar in 1931 that appears literally like a frying pan, the world wasn’t ready for a soloing guitarist. But the next advancement which came in science of amplification and microphones came to change the function of anelectric guitar for good. That guitar players can do single note improvisation in a jazz band – just like a horn instruments would do, without worrying if the sound will be drowned out by other instruments.

Guitarist Eddie Lang and Lonnie Johnson had contributed a lot during the electric guitar’s transformation from a rhythm section instruments into a soloing instrument. But a young man called Charlie Christian who was the foremost essential figure in the history of Jazz guitar. His style was indistinguishable since the maestro would include a flowing legato notes in his improvisation just like a horn or a trumpet player would play. And fromcutting edge guitarists just like him, and Grant Green, Danny Barker and Django Reinhardt that incorporate language dictionary of Bebop improvisation, the guitar began to be seen as a Jazz instrument. Until their contemporaries such as Joe Pass, Wes Montgomery, Tal Farlow, Kenny Burrel had layed the ground work of what we know now as a Jazz Guitar Style.

Comping in Jazz Guitar

In popular music such as Pop and Rock, guitarists tend to play in a more rhythmical fashionand play sharp riffs that strongly characterise a song, especially in rock music. Occasionally guitar playing were divided into two “roles”, a rhythm guitarist who handle the song’s harmonic progressions and a lead guitarist who play all the riffs and solos. But in most times these two roles do not apply in Jazz Guitar style.

In those early days of electric guitar, Jazz guitarists like Danny Barker or Freddie Green from Count Basie band frequently plays a constant quarter notes strumming to ”push” the horn and brass section. This is a solid team work with the rhythm section members, especially bass player and the drummer to create an intense and tight swinging rhythm.

In modern Jazz guitar style, chords are being played more sparsely and at times resemble a horn section of a Big band. Chord voicings or inversions are frequently more complex, since it should be able to accommodate more complex melodic structure in modern Jazz tunes. On top of that, to properly accompany a soloist on a Jazz tune require some hearing expertise. Because in short words, in order tocompliment a solo which “tell a story” we can say that the accompanist improvise along with him.

Improvisation essentials

In the Jazz guitar style, guitarist often adopts a legato style of playing with natural breathing like horn players (saxophone, trumpet, etc). Horn players need to take a short breath between musical phrases, and these pauses are identically with traditional Jazz phrases. Needless to say, guitarists also must be able to play rhythmical grouping variations and appropriate dynamics.

Facilities and tools use in Jazz guitar improvisation like passing notes, guide tones of chord progressions and various scales, and their relation with harmonic structures are crucial. Some Jazz guitarists would take pride in making chord solos, which done by adding melody on top note of a chord voicing.

So to improvise, you need to be able to integrate the basic building blocks of harmonic structures and to understand their connections with the melody and forms, so that you can (intuitively) choose which notes to play. And then you fit them into a well balanced contour, both melodically and rhythmically musical phrases, while keeping the tempo and swinging with the band. Oh, and do not forget the foremost important thing in playing together, that is listening to your band mates doing those things too.

Sounds difficult? Well then I have some bad news; there are no shortcuts in learning music and improvisation. In our world, very few people, perhaps only less than 5% of musicians that able to improvise well on bebop and modern jazz harmonies with an elaborate harmonic structure, without sufficient knowledge of music theories. But the good news is that most of us are the 95% remaining. Who knows, it may also include your Jazz guitar idol that had spent tens of thousands of hours of practice to be able to reach that professional level.

In short, Jazz improvisation is almost like talking to somebody. To communicate with someone you need to be able to express your thoughts (song) at a person (the listener). For one can understand (enjoy), you must express your words clearly (articulation and phrases), with the right tone of your voice (tempo and dynamics). Not too slow, too loud or too fast and stay within the context of your subject. You need to be able to choose your words properly (proper selections of notes) and know exactly what you are talking about (harmony and their relationship with the melody). Sentences that are efficient in length and uncomplicated will sound much better (not playing too many notes that are inaccurate). Complete each of your sentences clearly and.. don’t forget to listen, so that you can react appropriately.

Playing with the band

Rhythm, melody and solos can be interpreted more freely in Jazz. Each musician can give musical ideas and others can react appropriately to that idea. Both melodies and soloscontain musical informations, and rhythm sections mightusually “follow” the subject. (Although sometimes can be interesting if we can change a bit the course of the subject). Trust between players is important, because you need to feel comfortable with the groove and the overall feel of the song that you play, to reach your goal which is to communicate your art to your audience.

Listening is the first rule in playing together with the band. So don’t just listen to yourself, but for example try to listen and notice how your bass player is trying to build solid harmonic structure in his walking bass to support the melody, or solo you are playing, or you should try to listen what type of inversion your piano player have on his left hand and what kind of musical idea that he might have which could influence you in choosing the next phrase, or pay attention to your drummer, maybe he was playing some very inspiring rhythmical ideas. Listening is also a way to identify musical problems so you can quickly find a solution to them.

If you are not aware of these things around you when playing Jazz, you will miss important moments in music. There are maybe 4 to 5 people in a Jazz ensemble so ideas are already there for you to grab, often it is much better to play music that is “there” than the music that’s already fixated “in your head”. And leave your ego at home because the ensemble playing is a collective activity, when musicians with various instruments have merged into a single unit of what we call music.

Tips on playing a Jazz performance:

Ensure that:

1. You can hear yourself clearly
Clear doesn’t mean loud.

2. You can hear every band members in your band clearly
Note the position and the volume of your band mates. On a big stage, if only necessary, slightly adjust your monitor speakers (never adjust your monitors to loud because it will cause discomfort and feedback, especially if you use a hollow body guitar).

3. Each band members can hear you clearly
This applies equally to point 2.

4. Ensure that the overall sound are well balanced
Adjust the volume balance and instrument’s EQ to blend the overall sound. (It is often a task of a sound engineer but remember it is your art at stake, so you should have a bit concern for this).

5. You are in a place where every band member can see you
It is important to be able to communicate and have eye contacts with your band when playing. So consider the position where you will be playing, and search for an ideal position where your ears can hear the overall sound adequately.

To read this article in Bahasa, log on to this link: https://www.facebook.com/notes/dion-janapria/cetak-biru-gitar-jazz/778287888874949

Dion Janapria (@dionjanapria)
Music Teacher at Djazz Music School, Jakarta
Lecturer and Jazz Guitar Coordinator at Pelita Harapan University, Tangerang (for Jazz Guitar, Jazz History, and Improvisation Concepts)

Another edition, another batch, another story, another result. The Braga Jazz Walk has reached its 9th edition which was served in wide variety. Three featured bands/artists had totally different style, different formation, different approach, different way of playing, but all of them were really entertaining and wonderful to watch. They gave a cool miniature of jazz and its richness. That goes for age too. A boy below teen-age to adult, all celebrated jazz with their own way. From the traditional, modern jazz to the marriage between jazz and traditional Sundanese music, together they created a small but rich package of a show.

Some jazz/music VIPs were found among the audience. The 2013 AMI Award winner for the Best Female Jazz Artist who once worked as the state pianist, composer/pianist/vocalist Nita Aartsen, also a piano teacher who has made many successful jazz pianists, Mochamad Yahya Salam. The senior guitarist Venche Manuhutu came too. The first performer, 10 year old Kafin Sulthan Reviera is Yahya’s student who takes lesson at Venche Music School (VMS).

We prepared something really special right from the start by presenting the kid prodigy, Kafin. He’s now a part of Mickey Mouse Club Indonesia, currently rehearsing and preparing for soon to be aired on Disney Channel. He is one of Erwin Gutawa’s ‘Above Average’ kids project which is also in the middle of recordings and concert, and he was also joined the gang of Mira Lesmana and Riri Riza’s Laskar Pelangi Musical Theatre a few years back. Amazingly, we are talking about a 10 year-old boy blessed with so many gifts. We met him last year when he was taking lesson at Venche Music School, we invited him to our event, he peformed with his teacher Mochamad Yahya Salam and he totally blew everyone away. From that moment on, this boy has grown fast. So it’s about time to have him back again.

If a year ago he still needed his teacher to be with him on stage, this time Kafin did it all by himself. Kafin egan swinging with a famous song “Lullaby of Birdland”. He kept the pace with with “Take the A Train”. “Moody’s Mood For Love” became a chance for him to demonstrate his ability.  Not an easy song to sing, not an easy song to play. But he did it all alone, along with connected improvisations which was spectacular. For the last song, he did a very, very lovely swingy Ismail Marzuki’s song, “Layang-Layang”.  When he’s done, our MC Erick Gabe teased him to give one more. With Erick’s mouth contrabass, he sang “Route 66″ and bagged loud applauses from the audience.

It’s a wonder how a boy his age could do it, but as we said, he’s indeed a kid prodigy, meaning a kid with extremely early on age displays excellent capacity and expertise in one particular industry/field which is over their particular amount of readiness. We saw how fast he has progressing, how great he is now but at the same time still reflects the adorable look according to his age. Cute but unbelievably gifted, skillful performance. We’re just glad to know this amazing boy.

Next was a jazz trio established just a couple of months ago but certainly isn’t a rookie. First of all, the members are not new faces in Bandung jazz scene. They have been working inside for quite some times, and they do possess great skills, chemistry and speak jazz fluently. Etudiant, that’s the name of the band, consisting of Tiurma Tizadya Ramadhani Siregar (piano), Ilham Septia Inda Nugraha (bass) and Galih Cahya Nugraha (drums). As Etudiant is a French word means Student, what do they want to tell? According to Ilham they used it as a reminder that they are all students from UPI and that they have to keep learning and practicing.

They began sailing with Miles Davis’ “Nardis and kept the straightahead party with Jerome Kern’s “All the Things You Are”. Some cool tradings were given in this one. Next, “Donna Lee” and they reached the end with Sound Of Music’s “My Favorite Things”, which for us stands as the winner of their renditions. One of the most interesting versions we have ever heard.

When the industry tends to suggest more and more players in a band, we’re just happy that jazz trio is still available in Bandung’s jazz scene, and we are happier to see a trio this good. It won’t be easy for them to establish a solid grip inside the pop-tendency country, but hopefully with the growing number of jazz events, they can have more chance to grow. A really good jazz trio this is.  They fly wide, they keep the modern jazz real, they make proper but interesting arrangements that are nicely executed, tight and clean. Tasty!

For the last show, we invited an ensemble consists of talented young lads who dare to connect western musics like jazz, soul, blues, rock, hiphop to even dance) with traditional Sundanese ethnique, progressively. It’s Hariring, a Sundanese word means hum or sing gently. The crossgenres don’t happen just on the sound, but also the instruments. They do use the modern, western instruments but also some traditionals.

The ensemble consists of daring musicians who understand how to carry this concept including Ringga Hardika (electric bass, fretless electric bass,), Ares Rudhiansyah (kendang, suling, ethnic percussions),  Resya “Eca” Firmansyah (Kolintang awi, kacapi, angklung, bass, bonang, saron), Asep Everbeat (cajon, karinding) and Awenk (Djembe, Tarompet penca).

What’s important to mention is that these dudes are not just active musicians but they are all craftsmen. All the instruments that they use are made by themselves. Even the bass was made by order. If you need any of these instruments, you can contact Ringga Hardika on 08122016628 or email him at ringgahardika@gmail.com.

They played four songs for tonight: “Kaul”, “Beat My Axe”, “Gaang” and “Kagagas”.  Just as you see, Hariring already has their own songs. The band has even have their album titled Fall in West, officially released 2 years ago. The album’s  sold out, but the good news is, now you can get the album for free, simply by downloading it at http://ringgahardika.webs.com/hariring or http://ringgahardika.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-hariring.html.

It was different. Highly entertaining, very natural and authentic Sundanese, yet open for any twists. They were playful with lots of jokes and high fun factor while served ambient, traditional music in modern approach. It stole people’s attention, it was both relaxing and refreshing.

Not everyone dare to take this musical path. It’s not easy, it’s even against the trend, so we give huge respect to bands who decide to walk this lane especially when the crafts and players are this good. Keep everything up, Hariring! See you again soon.

Jam session turned out to be hot from the first batch. Mr Yahya Salam responded to the call from the young musicians to participate. Later on YD Nafis of West Java Syndicate sat beside him sharing one piano while guitarist Anjuan Julio surprisingly took position behind the drum and played it well. Boy, what a set.

Then Anjuan took his gear and gave the drum position to Galih. Ilham on bass, Yahya was still on piano and Kafin was back. They played two songs: “Route 66″ and “Through the Fire”. Anjuan also sang and scat in front with Kafin. They both created wonderful scene.

For the last batch, Andre Fernando and Jerry Gates (guitars), YD Nafis (piano), Ilham Septi (bass) and Joo Yang (drums) gave “Englishman in New York”.  Anjuan took one more appearance but this time as a singer. A photo session occured during the song and that’s the end of this ninth edition.

One kid prodigy, a cool jazz trio and a stunning fusion jazz ethnic ensemble lightened the 9th edition Braga Jazz Walk. It was rich on variation, full of young but skillful players and entertaining from the start to the very last drop.

We thanks all the performers, all the coming musicians both who took part in jam session and sat with the audience, we send respect to you all. Keep supporting your local musicians and community events, because we won’t last long without you guys. See you again in two weeks.

Watch the highlight of Braga Jazz Walk 09 on Youtube

See more pictures:

Reporter: Riandy Kurniawan
Photographer: Titus Firmanto
Video Editor: Vierna Mariska

You thought you’ve heard it all. But actually, jazz still has unlimited terrains to explore. And it doesn’t always to be far, because something new can still come out from the elements, instruments or music style that we have been familiar with.

Here’s the good news. From Singapore comes a group named TAJ. This group of three consists of Tim De Cotta on bass, Audrey Tengkey on keys, and JR Teo on drums. The band was formed in 2012 and actually found the chemistry as well as the creativity connection pretty fast. They spend almost a year in the studio cooking their meal, and.. voila! An EP titled “The Astral Journey” under local independent record label Darker Than Wax (http://darkerthanwax.bandcamp.com/) is going to be officially released on January 30, 2015.

If you listen to this EP, you would find that TAJ has indeed a very strong concept. The label says that TAJ crafted an album that features poignant, illustrious pieces which evidently highlight their harmonious unity and talent. We totally agree with that. You can find post-rock, psychedelic funk, soul, hiphop and multi-textured beats that should satisfy music listeners including the trendy youngsters. By laying the concept on rich blendings, the Astral Journey is an ‘urban-esque’ jazz fusion that can capture modern cosmopolitan lifestyle with plenty of room to let your mind wander all the way to the imaginative astral world.

How was the band born? Audrey (who is actually Indonesian by the way) told us the story.

“We got together by chance actually. It was 2012 when Tim and I went with the Singapore contingent to MIDEM in Cannes. Through rehearsals for this showcase we got to know and like their musical styles in their respective bands. So when they came back, I invited Tim to an open jam session at LaSalle with other young musicians and students. It was a shed session to just have fun and also to try new things. Drummers, keyboardists, bassists and turntablists even. So JR was one of the drummers there and as the jam went on, it was clear that the chemistry between the three of us whenever we were on our instruments together was really strong! We didn’t just jam the songs per se but we moved and evolved them in a matter of minutes. So eventually, we started meeting more and more often, till it became just exclusive to the 3 of us, jamming covers and then eventually writing our own music. It happened very naturally and faster than usual, also because we became great friends. TAJ was born and on 1 Oct 2013 we released our single “The Astral Journey”.

Yes, the organic, epic, mind-traveling “The Astral Journey” was already released more than a year ago, but now TAJ finally has their debut ready to roll. Other than single, the album has other rich textured compositions which serve much, much more than just jazz. Tight drumming, sharp bass line and psychedelic synthesizer shone bright in “Old Town MOFO”, creating an intense emotion over the mellow tune. The post-rock pulses strong on dreamy but punchy “7DB”. The magical mixtures once again nicely showcased on “Daydream” which features the voice of Kaye, co-founder of Darker Than Wax, croons on the vocoder. Cosa Nostra’s refix of Daydream takes on a 4-to-the-floor house-disco approach. And of course, who wouldn’t love the fresh, high energy “Taj You’self”. Soul and rap became the key-elements on this one as well. The smooth beatdown remix by Jaël, a multi-faceted musician from Holland created another vibe on this song. The Jaël’s remix of ‘Taj Yo’self’ is exclusive to iTunes, Boomkat and Beatport. Lots of twists and turns are to be found here and there, not only as the element of surprises but play such important parts of each track.

“Do you see what you’ve been missin’?” that’s rapped Tim De Cotta on “Taj Yo’self” in a way sends us a message that their brews offer many interesting stuffs that we might haven’t heard so much lately. What’s make it cooler that there are only three players to carry heavy concept like this. From Singapore comes a small package of fusion with enough dose to make the listeners stoned. TAJ’s “The Astral Journey EP” ignites jazz’s cross-generation appeal in Singapore. Fine works of art from Tim, Audrey and JR (TAJ) should be acknowledged and appreciated.

You can pre-order the EP at one of these links:
http://darkerthanwax.bandcamp.com/album/the-astral-journey
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-astral-journey/id955164452
http://boomkat.com/downloads/1189173-taj-the-astral-journey
https://soundcloud.com/darkerthanwax/sets/taj-the-astral-journey-ep-dtw

And find/interact with them on:
http://twitter.com/TAJtheband
http://facebook.com/TheAstralJourney

Give a try and find out what you’ve been missin’.

TAJ are:
Tim De Cotta (Bass/ Vocals)
Audrey Tengkey (Piano, Keys and Synth)
Teo Jia Rong (Drums)

Tracklist:
1. Taj Yo’self (feat. Eric Foenander)
2. Old Town Mofo
3. 7dB
4. The Astral Journey
5. Daydream (feat. Kaye)
6. Daydream (Cosa Nostra Remix)
7. Taj Yo’self (Jaël Remix)

All track written and produced by TAJ
Cosa Nostra remix of Daydreams by Kaye and Funk Bast*rd
Jaël remix of Taj Yo’self by Giovanni Jaël Jano-Fatbinan.
Artwork by The Town Jeweller
Text by RAH

It’s not easy to keep an event like this running continuously, but we are happy to make it still on the wheel, moving and growing from one edition to another, thanks to all your support: our partners in crime, music fans and most especially the musicians, who, not only take part in the showcases but also come regularly, either to jam or just to enjoy the jazzmosphere. Speaking of jam, many people doubted us when we decided to put jam session regularly in every show. But now, we have done it twice a month for more than a year. We give credit to the talents in Bandung and nearby for proving that Bandung does jazz indeed. It still feels like yesterday when we just rebooted this regular community event at the new venue, Braga CityWalk after the old one no longer wish to support this movement. But now, look. We have come to the Braga Jazz Walk #10.

As 10 is a special number, we have prepared special theme for this edition too. This 10th installment turns out to be an edition where you can find the connection and harmony between artists who grow in the communities: those who have taken the road earlier and the younger ones. These more ‘senior’ musicians began their musical path from jazz communities but look at where they stand now. The young ones can learn from them, how and what did they do to achieve success by having communities as the start point.

There is another interesting catch and let’s begin with it. following the first tribute to Joe Sample and the Crusaders by Chakraborty a couple of months ago (http://jazzuality.com/jazz-event-report/braga-jazz-walk-06-the-report/), once again there will be a tribute to an artist who has sold no less than 300 million albums, more than 50 top 40 hits (many become evergreens) throughout his career which spans for 50 years. Who? It’s Elton John.

Many people relate Elton John with rock, from his glam rock eras during the 70’s, some rock n roll, pop rock, pop or even RnB. But someone as talented as him should be placed above genres, especially since his songs are sung in countless of styles by artists/people all over the world over the years. He’s famous with his eccentric/wild stage costumes, but his ability to make melodious songs, piano playing and most importantly his baritone voice are his signatures would be difficult to match.

There’s a young male vocalist in Bandung that has been following many talent search shows named Andre Arizky. He was in Rising Star Indonesia 2014 and made it to Top 36 Wall Riser. He also competed in StarVoices season 3, and currently tries his luck in X Factor Indonesia 2015. He took one of the showcases in Braga Jazz Walk #06 where he sang a couple of Elton John’s classics. We say, he did it great. Since Elton John is one of his biggest sources of inspiration, he sang and played the song with his heart. We loved it and asked him to take a full round of Elton John. He agreed, and the chance’s here.

So, any of you fancy Elton John and some of his golden hits? Andre can do it all alone, playing the piano, singing with the exact Baritone voice and spread the joy.

Next, a band consists of praise and worship team who also utilize their talents in the secular world. The band’s called In & Out. It consists of guitarist Andreas Johan, Cakra Khan’s bassist Reinhard Woran and two Out of 7 members: Widiyanto Sutanto (keyboard) and Marissa Wiguna (drums). This is the first time we heard about the band, but looking at the members inside, this is a very strong team who could bring surprises. Widiyanto told us that he likes playing with Andreas. “Andreas is a good player and he plays neat. I like playing with him.” he said. Well, it’s always interesting to see new bands. When it has great players inside, we get curious even more. It’s time to check them out, what they are going to offer, how they are going to serve it. Fusion can be expected to come from them. You love fusion? Don’t miss this one.

Last but not least, there will be a solo piano recital, starring a young, but stands as one of the jazz frontmen in Bandung today, Christ Stanley. he entered the local jazz squared circle very early not long after he turned to jazz at the age of 20 by being actively involved in Klab Jazz’s events. He grew there, gaining more and more experience while digging knowledge from mentors like Mochamad Yahya Salam, Henry Virgan, Nial Djuliarso and plenty of workshops. He’s been busy with many groups including the sensational Halfwhole Project, his trio, quartet, quintet and so on, also stands as the band members of Danilla.

He was supposed to perform with Okki Jatikusuma and Puspallia Panggabean, but unfortunately they both cancelled their participation due to some reasons. Stanley decided to sail alone. Well, it could be a blessing in disguise. We know how good he is in bigger formations, but we haven’t seen him doing solo piano recital just yet. The skill, the good vibe, even his ability to sing could definitely steal your heart. You don’t find pure jazz solo piano recital that often anymore especially in Indonesia. If you want to have the jazzy good times with only one man and piano, if you like the way Bill Evans, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk and Nial Djuliarso did their solo sessions, come to see Stanley. Come early because most likely he will be the first performer.

Jam session will be available after the showcase as usual. If you have no band but wish to join, you can use this segment. Or, if you have no schedule but wish to unleash some jazz from your soul, you are absolutely welcome.

On February 26, 2014 Braga Jazz Walk is going to become the Java Jazz Festival 2015 Pre Event for Bandung. This speical edition will feature multi-national artists including Isra Varela (Mexico/drums), Nita Aartsen (Indonesia/piano) and Daniele Cappucci (Italy/bass) as VAC featuring Yeppy Romero (Indonesia/acoustic guitar), then the marawis/darabuka ensemble Batavicada featuring Marcello Allulli (Italy/saxophone) plus some local performers. While we are preparing and cooking this up, make sure not to miss this 10th edition of Braga Jazz Walk. Three showcases, one tribute, the combination between highly talented young guns and those who have started from jazz communities and achieved success, plenty of actions and multi jazz genres can be yours in one single shot. It’s totally FREE as always. Do join us if you are in Bandung on February 12, 2015. Come to Braga CityWalk and let’s have a jazzy good times together!

BRAGA JAZZ WALK #10

Date: February 12, 2015
Time: 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Location: Braga Jazz Walk
Jl. Braga 99 – 101, Bandung

FREE EVENT!

Featuring:

:: ANDRE ARIZKY Sings ELTON JOHN ::
Andre Arizky (piano/vocal)

:: IN & OUT ::
Andreas Johan (guitar)
Reinhard Woran (bass)
Widiyanto Sutanto (keyboard)
Marissa Wiguna (drums)

:: CHRIST STANLEY ::
Christ Stanley (piano)

It feels like yesterday when we moved to a new venue after the old one didn’t wish to support our jazz community event any longer. It was the last week of September when, finally we rebooted the event in Braga CityWalk and changed the name to Braga Jazz Walk. We reset the count back to one but kept the rule of the game. Three showcases and one open jam session up to the end, until the mall ends its service. From one edition to another, all of a sudden we have come to the 10th edition. As usual, together with our partner in crime, the Braga CityWalk and KPH Music, the Braga Jazz Walk #10 showcased assorted flavors of jazz, played by mostly young talents. What’s unique is that in this edition one could find the connection and harmony between artists who grow in the communities: those who have taken the road earlier and the younger ones. These more ‘senior’ musicians began their musical path from jazz communities but look at where they stand now. The young ones can learn from them, how and what did they do to achieve success by having communities as the start point.

We once promised to bring special tribute once in a while. We began with a tribute to Joe Sample and the (Jazz) Crusaders a couple of months ago, courtesy of Chakraborty (read the report here). In this edition we highlighted a living legend, so unique in style as his music covers wide area from glam rock to pop to RnB. Plenty of his songs are evergreens (he has placed more than 50 top 40 hits), he has sold no less than 300 million albums, he won Grammy many times since 1972, one Academy Awards (Oscar) and 4 Tony Awards. He’s been in the industry for over 50 years without ever losing passion even a bit. His long time fans would remember him for his eccentric/wild stage costumes, but for us, it’s his signature baritone voice and ability to make beautiful melodious songs are the things that make him immortal. He is Elton John.

But before the tribute appeared, a young but highly skillful and fully experienced pianist Christ Stanley gave his solo jazz piano recital. He was supposed to appear in a trio formation with Okki Jatikesuma and Puspallia Panggabean, but alas, they couldn’t make it. Showing a good professional musicianship and commitment, Stanley decided to keep going even alone, and it turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

Miles Davis’ “All Blues” launched first and directly showed his mastery specifically on jazz piano. Stanley began to embrace jazz piano since 20 years old. Interestingly, he began from a jazz community in Bandung, Klab Jazz. He grew there, gaining more and more experience while digging knowledge from mentors like Mochamad Yahya Salam, Henry Virgan, Nial Djuliarso and plenty of workshops. He’s been busy with many groups including the sensational Halfwhole Project, his trio, quartet, quintet and so on. He is the pianist for Danilla.

The Beatles’ classic “Blackbird” appeared nicely in complex composition yet natural with jazz and blues inside. “Gonna Be Alright” continued the high level structures and then he reached the end with Thelonious Monk’s masterpiece, “Straight No Chaser.” All the songs he played were standards, you thought you knew the songs, yet he could make it as if those were his own. Flowing naturaly, complex in high difficulty yet felt simple and easy to enjoy. What a nice first round.

No one denies his awesomeness playing in any formation, but it’s rare for us to see him doing solo jazz piano recital. Performing alone often needs more than just skill. The player has to be able to carry the role, own the stage and bring everything full in order to meet the audience satisfaction. Does Stanley have it? Yes. We have seen him developing throughout the years, either at the community he grows, Klab Jazz and other events from small to big, prestigious ones. He has transformed to be a reliable jazz entertainer including a trustable one man show. He has the skill, he possesses good vibe, even his ability to sing could definitely steal your heart. As we don’t find pure jazz solo piano recital that often anymore especially in Indonesia, Stanley is the one to look for. Smooth and sweet swingin’ performance that worked perfectly for Valentine’s Day.

Move on to the second act, the tribute. It’s not easy to find someone who could bring the cool impression of Elton John, since the person has to be able to play piano and sing at the same time, has to have the charisma and of course, the baritone voice. That’s why we were happy when we met Andre Arizky, who actually admitted to be highly inspired by Elton John. When we invited him to perform at Braga Jazz Walk #06, he delivered a couple of Elton John’s classic really well. So we thought, we don’t he just make a tribute to Elton instead? Andre agreed and happily took it.

The Academy Award winning song for Elton John fom Lion King “Circle of Life” opened up his session that directly showed how good he covered Elton John both in piano playing and the Barritone voice. Elton John’s gem from seventies “Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word” sounded really nice from him as well. Then he went back o the Lion King soundtrack “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” before picking another evergreen, “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me”. A song that we always dearly love, “Rocket Man” was perfect from him. As much as we enjoyed his performance, this lovely song was the final from him.

Rizky was in Rising Star Indonesia 2014 and made it to Top 36 Wall Riser. He also competed in StarVoices season 3, and currently tries his luck in X Factor Indonesia 2015. As for Elton John, a legend like him should be placed above genres, especially since his songs are sung in countless of styles by artists/people all over the world over the years. We are happy to have a tribute to Elton John at Braga Jazz Walk and certainly proud to have such talent like Andre. Let’s wish him all the best for competing in X Factor. Based on his talent, passion, ability and effort, this man should be one of the serious contender.

The last shot was filled by young guns who are all active as praise and worship team in their churches. The band’s called In & Out, with guitarist Andreas Johan brought in his friends including Cakra Khan’s bassist Reinhard Woran and two Out of 7 members: Widiyanto Sutanto (keyboard) and the sensational girl drummer Marissa Wiguna (drums). True, we never heard this team play before, but we do know the members very well. We know they are highly skillful and capable to bring out action. We believe they would be surprising and it turned out to be true.

In & Out showcased top notch jazz rock rendition with well known standards including Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five”, Herbie Hancock’s “Cantaloupe Island” and Chick Corea’s “Got a Match”.  As you can see, these are not easy songs to pick. And for your information, the band is just a week old, built especially for Braga Jazz Walk. Yet these brave young lads and the fearless lady took all the risk in bringing these masterpieces.

More than enough rooms for each of them to do the solo run, their facial expression glowed happily.  Widiyanto as usual let his fingers danced some free jazz, Marissa on drums gave no mercy, Reinhard let out some unpredictable walking bass and Andreas rocked his way on the surface. It was a thrilling joyride from start to finish.

We are always excited when a new jazz-oriented band is formed, and even more excited when we know the quality of the players inside the band. In & Out is still a week old, but these young guns are fluent in playing jazz rock. They are fun to watch, ear and eye catchy. Since the band is promising, we hope they keep the band alive and look for opportunities to go higher. What can a week-old band do, you say. Well, In & Out proved that it can go further than you think. It was refreshing, a stunner.

Jam Session took place immidiately. The team of Jerry Gates (guitar), Joo Yang (drums), Yosua Setiawan (bass) and Billy (vocal) went bossa with “Girl from Ipanema”.  Shortly after Andre Fernando joined Joo Yang and Yosua and delivered one song. Since it was already late, the photo session wrapped this 10th edition.

This edition interestingly featured all young players serving variety of jazz with their own ways. There was player who have taken the road earlier, hatched and grew in jazz community and then achieved success, then there was a very potential rising star and a group of skillful musicians, playing jazz tight and clean. Then, we also have to mention the jamming squad, consists of those who regularly come and participate in the jam session. They all created a good run in this 10th edition.

Watch the highlight of Braga Jazz Walk 10 on our Youtube channel:

NEXT STOP: BRAGA JAZZ WALK SPECIAL EDITION: PRE EVENT JAVA JAZZ FESTIVAL 2015
Featuring Multi-National Artists (from Indonesia, Mexico and Italy)

Before we wrap up this coverage, allow us to have your attention. The next stop of Braga Jazz Walk, on February 26, 2015 Braga Jazz Walk is going to become the Java Jazz Festival 2015 Pre Event for Bandung. This speical edition will feature multi-national artists including Israel Varela (Mexico/drums), Nita Aartsen (Indonesia/piano) and Daniele Cappucci (Italy/bass) as VAC featuring Yeppy Romero (Indonesia/acoustic guitar), then the marawis/darabuka ensemble Batavicada featuring Marcello Allulli (Italy/saxophone) plus some local performers. There will be Drum Clinic by Varela, former student of Dave Weckl and played with Pat Metheny and Mike Stern among others. The clinic and concert are both totally FREE as always. It’s time to show that jazz is really happening in Bandung and we are loud minority!

See more pictures:

Reporter: Riandy Kurniawan
Photographer: Titus Firmanto
Video Editor: Vierna Mariska

Jazz event is not a new thing for Bandung people and we can see they crave for more. This is a trigger for more innovations and the born of new talents. Since 2014 Jazzuality has embarked a new mission, working on jazz regeneration by establishing regular jazz community event. Edutainment is what we have been carrying, meaning that not only thinking of presenting jazztertainment to the society, but educational matters are also weighed very significantly in our consideration. Since September 2014 we have moved to an even better crime scene, Braga CityWalk, a happening renewed mall located in the historical Braga street in Bandung. So far the event has found many potential talents and attracted musicians from Bandung and nearby cities to showcase their crafts as a part of the community.

2015 is a special year for Jazzuality because we got this opportunity to start the year with collaboration with the biggest jazz event ever in Indonesia, big welcome for Java Jazz International Festival 2015. Braga Jazz Walk sees this chance as a good momentous to expand the glorious of jazz and together with Jazzuality Community, the very supportive Braga CityWalk and KPH Music this regular two weekly event becomes the PRE EVENT of JAVA JAZZ FESTIVAL 2015 for Bandung region. The date is 26 February 2015 in accordance to the regular schedule of Braga Jazz Walk.

It is an honor for Jazzuality and Braga Jazz to host one of Java Jazz pre-events and will be the only gig in Bandung. Get yourself ready to receive the extraordinary talents presenting highly nutricious concert at Braga CityWalk before you jump up to the main event at JIEXPO, and for your information our musicians below are going to perform at Java Jazz 2015 too!

VAC TRIO

VAC Trio is a multi-international trio consists of Isra Varela (Mexico, drums), Nita Aartsen (Indonesia, piano) and Daniele Cappucci (Italy, contrabass). They have visited many countries around the world and received amazing responses, not only for their master-class playing but for brilliantly bringing the unique combination as a new, exotic and magical hybrid, Flamenco Jazz.

ISRAEL VARELA

Israel Jesse Varela is an amazing rhythm master from Tijuana, Mexico, with a long history of professional recording and performing with big names such as Pat Metheny, Mike Stern, Key Eckhart, Diego Amador. Varela is a rare talent, mixing super dynamic flamenco rhythm into contemporary style. He has released 3 solo albums to date.

NITA AARTSEN

Nita was the state piano player for Indonesia for a period of 15 years. She is a virtuoso pianist, specializing in the connection between classical, Latin, Jazz and contemporary music. She has performed all over the world with some of the best Latin and Jazz musicians. She is a regular performer at Java Jazz Festival and many other prestigious festivals inside and outside her homeland. Nita has released 3 international solo albums to date and is well known for her own unique brand of high energy, contemporary Latin Jazz.

DANIELE CAPPUCCI

Capucci studied music at the conservatory of Foggia, Italy, New Orleans Jazz University, Columbia College Chicago and the Royal Conservatory of the Hague, Netherlands. This genius Italian double bass player is an expert cross over musician, from classical to contemporary jazz.

YEPPY ROMERO

This guitar virtuoso can play in any genre, but he’s specialized in Flamenco Jazz which is rarely found in Indonesia. Yeppy holds the MURI Record for playing guitar 10 hours straight, featuring 150 songs in 4 languages and 10 music genres, also collaobrating with 100 top class musicians (March 16, 2008). His Batakustik project claims many praises. He also supports and establishes many events in Jakarta.

BATAVICADA ft MARCELLO ALLULLI

BATAVICADA

Batavicada is an acoustic band that blends jazz with some traditional instruments like Marawis/Kepak from Batavia (Betawi) and Darbuka from the Middle East. Played by 5 talented musicians: Wisnu (acoustic bass), Nita Aartsen (piano), Erick, Roby, Graha (marawis and darbuka), this unique ensemble is going to present Latin Jazz standards like Dizzy Gillespie’s composition, Juan Tizol, Chick Corea for the Pre Event Java Jazz Festival 2015. For the show in Braga Citywalk Bandung, Batavicada is going to present beautiful collaboration with saxophonist from Italy, Marcello Allulli.

MARCELLO ALLULLI

Allulli is a prominent saxophonist prominent in the Italian national jazz scene, Marcello Allulli is leader and member of many ensemble including MAT-Marcello Allulli Trio, Maria Pia de Vito e Rita Marcotulli 5et, Glauco Venier ensembles, Israel Varela duoi, RAJ trio, Ettore Fioravanti 4tet. He graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston. In 2011, 2012,2013 and 2014 he was voted at the italian JAZZIT AWARD as one of the best saxophonists.

The main feature that distinguishes the artist is the versatility to play different styles, his music is a result of a total fusion and no boundaries between neo-bop, funk, folk music, avant-garde and Mediterranean melodies. His concerts testify to the will of a direct relationship with the public, actively involved during live performances.

DRUM CLINIC by Israel Varela

As stated before, educational matters are important in our mind. Therefore there will be a Drum Clinic by Isra Varela, open for all-genre drummers and totally FREE from any charge. The clinic will start at 5:00 pm. If you are a drummer and wish to learn some Flamenco Jazz beat and all the twists, we invite you to attend this. Make sure you come on time.

All those, plus some cool Opening Acts you don’t want to miss! They are:

HARIRING

The Hariring is project that plays collaboration between modern and traditional music and influenced by any kind of music. Jazz, Blues, Rock, Fusion, Dance, Soul and Sundanese music. Sometimes you’ll hear traditional musical instruments such as angklung, peking, kendang and goong mixed by modern instruments. Ambient, relaxing, dreamy and pleasuring.

Members: Ringga Hardika (bass, keys, sampling), Ares Rudhiansyah (kendang, bamboo flute, ethnic percussions), Resya Firmansyah (kolintang, kacapi), Asep Everbeat (cajon, karinding) and Awenk (djembe, tarompet penca).

KAFIN

A rare 10 year old boy prodigy. He’s now a part of Mickey Mouse Club Indonesia, currently rehearsing and preparing for soon to be aired on Disney Channel. He is one of Erwin Gutawa’s ‘Above Average’ kids project which is also in the middle of recordings and concert, and he was also joined the gang of Mira Lesmana and Riri Riza’s Laskar Pelangi Musical Theatre a few years back. He sings and plays piano just as great.

Since Java Jazz Festival is right around the corner, the jazz fans in Bandung can feel the early flame by attending this party. Especially if you can’t be there at JIExpo, you can have a taste of it by watching some of the Java Jazz Festival 2015’s lineup.

So mark your calendar on February 26^th, 2015, free your noon time and come to Braga with your lovely ones and enjoy the jazzy night. It is surely a rare opportunity for us to see musicians with exceptional skills performing freely at public place, so make sure you don’t miss it.Four performers in one stage plus jam session for all you drummers out there, it is totally open for everyone who interested in exploring their music and joins the festive of Java Jazz Festival 2015. We will wait you there and together with other Bandung folks let us be the front line of jazz supporter.

BRAGA JAZZ WALK SPECIAL EDITION: PRE EVENT JAVA JAZZ FESTIVAL 2015

Date: Thursday, 26 February 2015
Time: 06:30 pm – onwards
Location: Braga CityWalk
Jl. Braga 99 – 101, Bandung

DRUM CLINIC with ISRA VARELA starts at 5:00 pm, open for drummer all genre

ALL FREE!

If you’re one of our regular readers, you should have known by now that jazz has been happening bigger and better in the capital of South Sumatra, Palembang. It’s true, just like in the other cities, jazz is not the mainstream. Yet the growth is promising. If concerts, shows or even festivals have existed, the educational matters still need to be pushed much forward. According to the chief of Palembang Jazz Community Zaenal Hanani, Palembang indeed needs school of music, conservatorium or at least special clinics that can upgrade the technique and the playing of young talents.

Based on that, Palembang Jazz Community in cooperation with The Consulate of the United States of America present music clinic which will be hosted by American arranger, musician and teacher: Anthony Stanco. He will share his knowledge with his group called Anthony Stanco Ensemble. The clinic will take place at Kedai Iphoek Thea, Jl. Hang Tuah no 5, Palembang on March 11, 2015, from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm.

As mentioned earlier, the tutor Anthony Stanco is a trumpeter who is also famous as composer and lecturer. Anthony Stanco began his connection with trumpet when he was still at 5th grade of Fraser Public School System. He joined Detroit Symphony Orchestra Civic and Civic Jazz Orchestra under the direction of Marcus Belgrave and Rodney Whitaker. Stanco carried on by studying at the Manhattan School of Music right after his graduation in 2007. In 2014 he finished his postgraduate education at the Michigan STate University. From that point he digged more lessons from the likes of Rodney Whitaker, Reginald
Thomas, Michael Dease, and Etienne Charles.

In 2008 Anthony released his debut “Kenya Revisited Live!” by collaborating with Manhattan School of Music Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra. This album got Grammy nomination for Latin. Anthony Stanco also released his first album “The Crucial Elements” with his ensemble.

Anthony Stanco who also sings will play with Marcus Elliot (tenor sax), Paul Bratcher (piano), Sam Copperman (bass) and Jordan Otto (drums). They come to Palembang under the cultural exchange program between Indonesia and USA, said Trevor Olson, the Deputy Consul United States of America to Sumatra.

This event is brought to you by Palembang Jazz Community and The Consulate of the United States of America, plus Trijaya 87.6 FM Palembang.

The event is open for all genre. Free to register, and you will get certificate.

According to Eko Adji Soebijantoro, the Station Manager of Trijaya FM Palembang, this event will be recorded fully and then will be aired on the radio. You can also find the audio file on the website http://trijayafmplg.co.id. The Palembang Jazz Community’s program can be accessed at https://www.facebook.com/groups/180517225216/https://www.facebook.com/groups/180517225216/, you can follow their twitter at @paljazzcom.

If you are in Palembang on March 11, 2015 and happen to be a musician, no matter what your genre is, you are welcome to join. A golden chance this is since this doesn’t happen every day, so make sure you won’t miss it.

Chinese New Year had passed, so had Valentine’s Day. it is already last week in February, get yourself ready to welcome the new month. Before that, close this lovely month with something special in accordance to the biggest jazz meeting in the world that’s amazingly made in Indonesia, the Java Jazz Festival. For jazz aficionados, the month of March must be the most exciting month of the year.

This year the Java Jazz Festival is going to celebrate its 11th aniversary, as usual with hundreds of shows and thousands of players.  Jazzuality in collaboration with Braga CityWalk, KPH Music, and Java Festival Production gave the best serving for you people who adore music, especially jazz. Bandung, a friendly city with its cool atmosphere, has not so many jazz events compare to Jakarta, but this year, Java Jazz has its eyes on Bandung, most especially at our own regular community event, the Braga Jazz Walk.  looking at the increasing rate of excitement Bandung people have for jazz gigs. Surely it is an honor Jazzuality and all the partners to be chosen as a partner in hosting the Java Jazz pre-event. Speaking for the venue, Braga, one of well-known areas in Bandung with its vintage yet sophisticated ambiance absolutely is an exact place to hold this event. Thankfully Braga City Walk and KPH Music continuously place themselves as our partners in crime serve the best for you who long to see jazz gigs in public places.

At the very last Thursday on February 2015, Braga Jazz Walk had its special edition as one of Java Jazz pre-event. Not only you could feel Java Jazz vibes early, but also you had the chance to see some musicians who will participate at Java Jazz Festival 2015. It was also a good opportunity for the artists because they could warm themselves up before the main event next week. What a good luck for people in Bandung.

It was 5 pm. not too many people yet, but it increased as the night came and this event was totally free charge, no wonder many people did not want to miss this opportunity. The show was started with a drum clinic with Israel Varela. If you haven’t heard his name just yet, you should now, since this man has a very unique way of drum playing, rich in variations and of course , dare to take any risks. Such quality brought this former student of Dave Weckl to play alongside big cats like Pat Metheny and Mike Stern.

For fifteen years he has played Flamenco Jazz as drummer and uncountable best players already he played with. It is not easy to start doing something new and so Flamenco Jazz did to him. The hard long journey started when he moved to Andalucia and stayed at some gypsy camp, a small remote area but it was similar to his hometown. Varela said the key to his success now is to respect the music and just start playing it. There is no shortcut in music and no one say it is easy, but you absolutely can nail it when you put full effort and pratice everyday. He already proved it, and it was the time for him sharing it to Indonesian audience at Braga.

Speaking about Flamenco Jazz, Yeppy Romero and Israel Varela gave us some important pieces about it. Flamenco was originally formed in Andalucia, Spain and it is absolutely not Latin. Flamenco Jazz parts into two categories:  traditional and modern. The former is a little hard to understand, but we will see a lot of percussion and traditional dance if we refer it to Indonesian culture. The latter consists of guitar, dance, and song with upbeat style like Rhumba (dance). As Romero said, he cannot claim his group as the first Flamenco jazz, but they continually try to socialize it so more people know about this rare genre. Varela added that beat or rhythm is the most important part in Flamenco and second one is hand clap so it can harmoniously go along with the dance. Playing music like doing conversation is also important, Varela shared his experiences while working with some great musicians that your musical skill go after your listening comprehension because you have to be a good listener to produce some good musics.

No pause, the concert began. Kafin, young body with many wonderful gifts started sailing. He is only 10, he has long way to explore the other side of him; guess there are many hidden talents he hasn’t showed us. For tonight, this participant of Mickey Mouse Club Indonesia, Gita Gutawa/Erwin Gutawa’s  Above Average project and Laskar Pelangi team  showed us the beautiful voice and awesome piano playing through sets of difficult songs including “Lullaby of Birdland”, “Take the ‘A’ Train”, “Moody’s Mood For Love” and epically closed with Ismail Marzuki’s legendary song, “Layang-layang”.

Kafin, a living proof that age doesn’t matter, he is so young compare to another musicians, but you couldn’t take your eyes off ever since he was on stage. Right before he played, Kafin gave his thought about jazz. He got his heart on jazz because he loves how jazz gives so much freedom. He breaks the stereotype people think of jazz, for Kafin jazz is not hard, instead it is a playground where he can fully play the imagination and sharp the skill. Maybe you are wondering how difficult it is to play a piano and sing at once. For Kafin, it is not difficult, it is more a challenge and he takes it in fun way where he can challenge himself. A boy wonder he is.

Then the stage went warmer in different tone courtesy of  Hariring, Originally, this band consists of everal skilled craftmen show their talent with various genres of music and the blends between modern and Sundanese tunes completely chilax our senses. But since around half of them couldn’t make it, the number decreased to three, with Ringga Hardika (bass, angklung), Asep Everbeat (cajon, karinding) and a substantial help from Alfariz (guitar).

With Fariz, the rule of the game changed. If they usually served Sundanese ambient music, this time the course moved to sharp rock funk. But hey, as mentioned above, they used angklung and karinding too. The result is somewhat unique.  The aroma of Borneo traditional music was locked around their music, thanks to Fariz’s homeland. Experimental, jam mode with combination of instruments you probably never thought of. Well, the three pax Hariring is actually still groundbreaking. Not many people realize, but actually the work of Hariring is important for Indonesia, our music and our industry. We’re just happy to be connected with them.

Then, we got Java Jazz gets “Exploring Indonesia” as its theme for 2015, and as expected, both international and national musicians have all their supports to expand Indonesian culture through music then make it known worldwide.  Interesting experience it was, where we can see the blending between Indonesian culture and other countries in tunes. These two bands are multi-national but showcased the magic when East and West (and Middle East) collide.

First, the completely different genre, Batavicada, an acoustic band who cleverly mixed jazz with several traditional instruments like Marawis/Kepak from Batavia (Betawi) and Darbuka from the Middle East/Turkey. According to Nita Aartsen, Batavicada originally has guitar player, but this time Nita took charge in producing the melody. With Wisnu (acoustic bass) plus Erick, Roby, Graha (marawis and darbuka) , Batavicada proved that music including or especially beat is borderless but somehow connected from one side to another parts of the world.

The Middle-Eastern beat from Graha, Robby, and Eric made the crowd cheered enthusiastically. The crowds popped several times, and the number of audience suddenly jumped high. They popped several times, some were caught dancing and tapping according to the beat. It was when the ethnic tunes met jazz. The first time ever they tried to collaborate and the result was amazing. The blending between street music and jazz was naturally delivered to our ears and broke the image of exclusive and segmented jazz music. Soon after Yeppy Romero joined the others at front and spoiled us with his guitar play.

Continued with Marcello Allulli and his saxophone and smoothly went into the melody along with piano and marawis. Though it was rarely played together but the harmony was surely there, you could feel it and it was so much exciting. They played “Caravan” and the mixture between flamenco, jazz, and gypsy music were clearly heard.

A blazing showcase that flew miles higher than the ordinary, a breakthrough and magical beat and rhythm showdown. Batavicada opens up a new dimension that shows the unlimited possibilities as well as the unity between rhythm and music from different corners of the world. Very rich and solid. Magnifico!

The number of (loud and vibrant) audience jumped over the roof – as  the main eventer  VAC grouped on stage. This band consists of trio Israel  Varela as drummer (Mexico), Nita Aartsen as pianist (Indonesia) and Daniele Cappucci as bassist (Italy). Three countries in one stage, you can see the riches through their unique Flamenco Jazz music.  Nita served as the state pianist for 15 years and known as a pianist who bridge classical, jazz and Latin. While Daniele Cappucci is a wide explorer, reaching from classical to jazz and beyond.

In order to add more colors to their performance, Yeppy Romero, a guitarist, showed up on stage. This MURI record holder (for playing guitar 10 hours straight, featuring 150 songs in 4 languages and 10 music genres, also collaborating with 100 top class musicians aside of his monumental Batakustik)  is in fact the frontliner in Indonesia when it’s about Flamenco Jazz. He’s been socializing this for some years, and now we finally got his performance in Bandung.

As Nita Aartsen said in beginning, they will play together with Marcello Allulli and Yeppy Romero at March 7th, 2015. Luckily, here people in Bandung, had the opportunity to taste their performance live on stage and got a little preview about how they will perform later at Java Jazz Festival. For free. Totally a dream come true isn’t it?

“Madrid”,  a song from Marcello’s first album became the opening and immediately jumped to second song from Nita Aartsen’s first album, “Blue Rondo” . Next song was the well-known hits by Beethoven “Fur Elise” played in interesting arrangement but still the classical touch was there. Then, Yeppy Romero and Marcello Allulli once again joined on stage and entertained the increasing crowd with exotic romance in “La Fiesta” and Mozart’s “Symphony 40″. Nita’s charm which lies in between classical, jazz, Latins and Flamenco naturally flew throughout their repertoires. The colorful Flamenco beat, the jazz-classical-Flamenco piano playing, and of course, the wild, wild fired up contrabass runs were hand in hand in creating a new musical dimension. Plus, Yeppy and Marecello’s fine works made everything even merrier. It was tight and delicious. Sharp like a dagger but also enchantingly exotic. Surely, the jazz fans who came to see them last night would already have something to remember for a long, long time.

The musicians must have been tired already, but they still happily agreed to have some of the audience to jam with them. Marcello, Daniele, Nita Aartsen stayed on stage, the Batavicada percussion trio came back to the stage, and from the audience: Widiyanto Sutanto, Alman Naufal and Frank Navayo joined the party. Nita distributed the chance for each player to get their shot while making sure that the jam session worked as how it should be.

The scene happened on this special edition of Braga CityWalk was simply unbelievable with that size of crowds. They were enthusiastic, responsive and lively. What a joy for us to see it. Thank you very much to you who came. And for the musicians, we send you huge respect. Many, many thanks for supporting a small community in Bandung like this. We feel honored and proud, we’re sure this brings wonderful benefits to jazz development in Bandung.

Finally, a serious reminder.  The day comes nearer; have you already bought your tickets for Java Jazz Festival 20155, fellas? As you can see from this event’s report, Java Jazz surely has many more things in order to satisfy your musical needs. Braga Jazz Walk had already tasted it, and once in a lifetime, you should feel the ambience of the biggest annually jazz event in Indonesia. So, mark your dates! It is on March 6th until 8th, 2015. See you there jazz lovers!

Watch the highlight of Pre Event Java Jazz Festival at Braga CityWalk on our Youtube channel:

See more pictures:

Reporter: Mellysa Anastasya, Riandy Kurniawan
Photographer: Titus Firmanto
Video Editor: Vierna Mariska Kurniawan
Special thanks to Nita Aartsen and Yeppy Romero

Attention jazz lovers in Palembang and South Sumatra in general, you must be excited to hear this! Palembang finally have a jazz festival that features international musicians. This big news arrived earlier today on our desk. The event is called MUSI JAZZ SRIWIJAYA, scheduled for March 10, 2015 from 3:30 pm until 10:30 pm at  Palembang Sport and Convention Center (PSCC), Jl. Angkatan 45, Palembang. This event will surely spoiled jazz lovers living in the capital city of South Sumatra, because other than the shiny lineup, the event is totally free from any charge.

MUSI JAZZ SRIWIJAYA is brought to you by Palembang Jazz Community in cooperation with South Sumatra Tourism & Culture Office and The Consulate of the United States of America for Sumatra. “The appearance of Anthony Stanco Ensemble from USA would surely boost the spirit of local jazz musicians in Palembang, especially in terms of creativity and improvise”, said Zaenal Hanani, the chief of Palembang Jazz Community.

Musi Jazz Sriwijaya will also present collaboration between jazz and ethnic/traditional art of South Sumatra. Irene Camelyn Sinaga, the head of South Sumatra Tourism & Culture Office believes it would push the potential of South Sumatra arts much forward. Meanwhile, Trevor Olson, the Deputy Consul of United States of America to Sumatra Trevor Olson looks forward to see this event as an interesting cultural exhange program between Indonesia and USA.

Anthony Stanco Ensemble consists of Anthony Stanco (trumpet), Marcus Elliot (tenor sax), Paul Bratcher (piano), Sam Copperman (bass) and Jordan Otto (drums). They are going to play South Sumatra folk song in collaboration with Palembang Jazz Community. Other than that, the virtuous guitarist who’s famous with his lightning speed touch-tapping style and often called The Magic Finger, Balawan is confirmed to play in trio format. Joining him are Ketut Tarmadi (bass) and Warman Adhi Sanjaya (drums). The legendary female jazz singer Ermy Kullit is set to perform with local jazz musicians under BSB Band and CON BRIO Orchestra. Another interesting info, Nana Lee will host the whole event and also play saxophone plus sing.

More on the traditional music, the festival is going to present Sanggar Tradisional Kreatif Gema Suara and the South Sumatra traditional play by SD Yayasan IBA and Fashion Show in jazz. Other bands to participate are The ABC feat OP, 3 Ball Porta, HEI feat Nesia, Teguh Project, Celeste Voice, Espresso, Jazzyndicate and Staccato.

The Program Division of Musi Jazz Sriwijaya, Eko Adji Soebijantoro promised that the collaboration between Anthony Stanco, Balawan, Ermy Kullit, Nana Lee and the jazz musicians under Palembang Jazz Community will certainly bring surprises. This event is also plan to be held regularly every year.

It might be a bit difficult for you guys in Palembang to be in Jakarta for the Java Jazz Festival, but hey, now you have the chance to see some of the brilliant performers. Coming at you just two days after the biggest annual jazz meeting in the world (http://jazzuality.com/jazz-events/jakarta-international-java-jazz-festival-2015-exploring-indonesia/) and a day before the coaching clinic with Anthony Stanco Ensemble (read the info here:  http://jazzuality.com/jazz-events/palembang-jazz-community-coaching-clinic-with-anthony-stanco-ensemble/), this is a golden chance for Palembang jazz fans to have something special without having to spend even a dime. If you are in Palembang and you love jazz, mark your calendar and be there.

The Java Jazz Festival 2015 has reached the 11th year. As usual, this largest annual jazz meeting in the world runs for full three days, presenting more than 50 acts per day (that’s hundreds of artists), spread over almost 20 stages for straight 8-9 hours. For this year there are many new names and interesting new projects, special tributes and so on. From legends, big names, today’s headliners to promising newcomers, all shaped each edition to stand strong both for jazz lovers and music fans in general.

Several stages started early in the first day. Farrah Di ; once a cute little girl but now 18 years old ; played with Jei Angklung in collaboration with Sol Project BPJS. Two more shows running almost at the same time were UPH Conservatory Orchestra and the band from Yogjakarta consists of brave young lions, Rekoneko. Just like Farrah Di, Rekoneko got young players when the band was born in 2009. Ido (piano), Andreas (bass), Luke (guitar) and Mahesa (drums) is still the core of this band. The beauty of fusion shone from them, with some ethnic spices here and there.

First performance at Semeru was so much as expected. Labeled “Straight Ahead Venue”, the artist brought strong jazz bebop, uptempo swing with aggressive solo for real jazz aficionados at this festival. Straight way ahead! Her name is Akiko. Imagine that fused with Joey DeFransesco and Jimmy Smith, then voila! We have Akiko. Teamed up with a guitar, drums, and a trumpet, the band was full of energy and attractive. Not only that, Akiko included gimmicks such as playing “Circus Charlie” in her solo and also included a little bit of “Whiter Shade of Pale”. One of the song they played was called “Johnny Comes Marching Home”.

During a little speech in between her songs, she said that this year is her 50th year in music career, right after that speech she played a beautifully organ-ized cover of “How Deep Is Your Love”, which got the audience to sing along. Great vibe! The show was satisfying. Semeru is definitely THE place for straight-ahead jazz, thanks to its excellent acoustic settings.

The harmonica and vibraphone virtuoso Hendrik Meurkens made his comeback to this festival. Just like in 2011, his passion in blending jazz with Brazilian music (bossa, samba, chorinho and many more) is captivating especially with his quartet, the Hendrik Meurkens Samba Jazz Quartet. Meurkens doesn’t bring just Brazilian music flat; instead he infuses lots of bop. What a way to enjoy Brazilian music-bop style.

Some more shows ran on different stages. Four On A Swing, a band started by pianist Pradyumna Manot with William Walters (bass), Aniruddh Saha (drums) and French Emmanuel Simon (percussion) featuring New Yorker Megan Powers on vocal lightened up the B2 stage. At the same time, Andre Dinuth, the name behind Glenn Fredly, Afgan, Rossa, Sandy Sondoro, Once and one of the Six Strings (with Dewa Bujana, Tohpati, Aria Baron, Baim and Eross Candra) who recently appeared in front by releasing his solo album heated up the other spot. From fusion to progressive to rock, it’s about time for him to make his own story. Meanwhile, the Institute Music Indonesia (IMI) Soca Project gave a tribute to a legend who passed away not long ago, Rinto Harahap. Beautiful arrangement was heard through several hits by him, such as “Ayah” and “Benci tapi Rindu”.

Krisdayanti, Ruth Sahanaya and Titi DJ as 3 Diva took place on D2 Main Stage. It was first time ever for these divas joined the festive Java Jazz and surely they colored the stage with numerous hits they sang. The man representing British jazz scene without neglecting his Afro-Caribbean roots, Courtney Pine shocked the audience with his shocking free jazz  and the new saxophone sensation Ricad Hutapea gave a smooth contemporary jazz delight on the other side of the stage. In addition, his fine works on the debut album “Jalan Pertama” surely loved by the visitors. Mary Stallings gave a warm, intimate show on the 6th floor while Aditya Elman served the Delta stage with several jazz standard.

As Pie Grande, Benjamin Herman Quartet and Angel Pieters, a beautiful youngster whose talents once awed David Foster, ran in their stage respectively, the group of giants rested their case on the big hall. One of the world’s best guitarist/composer Wayne Krantz with his mates: stellar musicians Anthony Jackson and Cliff Almond. Cutting edge, adventurous and action packed show presented by these giants. What a show, we’re lucky to see it.

Michael Lington is a superb saxophonist. No one denies that. But when he released “Soul Appeal”, suddenly we see another side of him that brings the classic soulful vibes to life, unlike others has done it. He doesn’t need to make difficult runs in complexity, extreme maneuvers; instead he just let his feeling out, transferring it into stream of melodies naturally. No need to think, just feel and enjoy what you feel. He can smoothly seductive, he can go wild, and either way Lington’s show was entertaining and should be able to meet the needs of audience.

Potret at Java Jazz Festival? But Potret is not a jazz group. Well, yeah, but listen to this. They’re just back again in 2015 with new single, plus the addition of two new players who are actually deeply connected to jazz: Nikita Dompas and Mery Kasiman. And then, Aksan Sjuman and Anto Hoed were inside too. So Melly Goeslaw should have a new ground, which should not be a problem for such talent like her. They played their famous all time hits, also featuring Yuni Shara.

Things got heated up at the prime hours. Swing legend Oele Pattiselano demonstrated the most beautiful side of swing under quartet formation. His show featured the daughter of bassist Jeffrey Tahalele, Crystal Tahalele.  Swing and samba were delightful from them. Then Agam Hamzah, Adi Darmawan and Gusti Hendy of Ligro Trio served thrilling high-octane action like riding a dare-devil roller coaster ride. At the B2 stage, Gilang Ramadhan presented his newest project, the Komodo Project with Ivan Nestor as guitarist and vocalist, Donny Suhendra, and Adi Darmawan as bassist. Just like the name, Gilang showed how good he is in capturing the beautiful scenery of Komodo Island in every beat. As how he does in Nera, this time he delivers unique drumming with fellow musicians including Ivan Nestorman, Pra Budidharma and so on.

A genius play by Biel Ballester Trio (with Graci Pedro and Leo Hipaucha) from Argentina gave us a slight sensation as if we were watching Django Reinhardt in modern world. The jazz manouche/gypsy jazz from the trio was sensational. After playing in several events including the Jazz Goes to Campus, Chika At Last Project finally landed at this prestigious festival for the very first time.

Not only Meurkens, this year Harmonica in jazz is also represented by Gregoire Maret. He has played with big names from Pat Metheny, George Benson, David Sanborn to Herbie Hancock and Marcus Miller just to mention a few. He performed as Gregoire Maret Quartet, featuring A list musicians including pianist John Beasley, bassist James Genus and veteran drummer Jef ‘Tain’ Watts. Marvelous!

A gang of big names took place at D2 Main stage. It was Yamaha Music Project which featured Glenn Fredly, Bams, Marcell, Sandhy Sondoro and Is from Payung Teduh, Bonar Abraham, Yoes KSP, Jonas Wang, Sadrach Lukas, Hentriessa, Denny Chasmala, and Jubing K. Together they prepared special show in Tribute to Michael Jackson and these awesome fellas sang many hits by the king of pop. A different story but also crowded happened at the other side. We still remember the crowds at Snarky Puppy‘s show at last year’s Java Jazz Festival Day one. At that time their session started really late, close to midnight, but this 2014 Grammy Award winner attracted so many people to come watching their show. In their second appearance again they got massive crowds. But that’s not all, because the view on their stage was also glorious with handful of instruments such as guitars, percussion, the keyboard, woodwinds, and brass played by many happy players. As promised they dropped quite different bombs that once again blew the audience’s mind totally. Cool, Snarky Puppy, hoping you to make a hat-trick next year.

There was an interesting show at the Semeru Hall. Interesting, not only because it featured amazing players from two countries: Poland and Indonesia, but it’s also because it carried an important agenda. It was Dominik Bukowski Group, commemorating the 60th Anniversary of Polish-Indonesian Relation. The Dominik Bukowski Group led by Dominik himself, a jazz vibraphonist and composer with many achievements. The bassist is also Polish; Piotr Lemaczyk and two other players is Indonesian. They are the scientific pianist with lightning speed fingers Sri Hanuraga and brilliant young drummer Jessilardus Mates. Clearly the energetic tunes with complex rhythms and harmonies were served interactively between them. Who could believe that “Bengawan Solo”, the masterpiece of maestro Gesang was actually famous in the 60’s in Poland? Dominik told us so, and the way they played was simply elegant. Musicians from different sides of the sphere are connected in one common language, resulted a delightful package. Meanwhile, young trumpeter/vocalist from New York City, Jumaane Smith was in brass-showdown with Ron King Quintet.

What can bass do in a group? You’d be surprise when the question’s given to Indro Hardjodikoro. With his group Indro Hardjodikoro The Finger, he pushes bass much more forward to take the role of other melodic instruments. In some ways he can even make it like ‘singing’. Along with his former student Fajar Adi Nugroho, keyboardist Andy Gomez, and drummer Yandi Andaputra, featured Gilang, Yankjay, and Soukma. Indro once again showcased a bass party. What a fun and pleasuring show as always. Indro Hardjodikoro The Finger has released their new album featuring Tompi, which is ‘Gadis Shanghai’.

This legend’s known as the Indonesian George Benson. He plays guitar and sings just as good. He has many hits both in solo career and as a part of a group. That’s Mus Mudjiono. At this year’s episode he got his own show that he took as a media to share his music journey which spans for 30 years the least. Then Angela Nazar, the lady who successfully became the runner up of the Dutch’s X-Factor shared her weapon that made her climb that far. Once known as a reliable band member and additional player, this year Kevin Josua shows his leadership in a quartet formation, just like in his debut album (released this year) titled “Contradiction”.

We have seen many vocal harmony groups in Java Jazz Festival, from New York Voices, Duwende to Manhattan Transfer. This year came Naturally 7, a group of seven musicians who serve music they call “Vocal Play”. Vocal Play? Yes, because they utilize their vocals in unison to recreate musical instruments in variety from drums, bass to guitars. They have performed with Michael Buble and Quincy Jones just to mention a few. You thought you heard full band, but no, they were all made by human voices. Jazzy, soulful, and very entertaining, no wonder they bagged standing applause everywhere they landed.

Dian Pramana Putra reprised his cool show by bringing his fans into the memory lane. Many hits were brought up on stage, for instance “Aku Ini Punya Siapa” and “Kau Seputih Melati” which was played with solo guitar acoustic. Deddy Dhukun is a musical soul-mate for Dian PP, so tonight he joined the show as supporting act for Dian. The blues madman Shohei Yamaki was on Delta, and then the come back of Indonesian nu-jazz group, Sova on A1 stage. The showdown between Lawrence Aswin (Larry) and Edward Andez (Andezzz) was refreshing to watch, especially after being on hiatus for no less than 9 year. One thing for sure, Sova is back with a vengeance.

Payung Teduh, a rocketed group of four talented fellows with their acoustic specialty, got their own session, had Riza Arshad as guest star, so did simakDialog who has been redefining the east meets west concept by replacing drums with kendang set in a never ending innovation and exploration for 20 years and had Mian Tiara also as guest in “My Favorite Things”.  SimakDialog doesn’t go with vocalist that often. So, when they make this kind of turn, for us it’s something different. We even think it’s a good move that should be carried on. Taking the name of one legendary actor, the Steve McQueens stands as a proud Neo-Vintage Soul Funk band from Singapore but signed to Japanese label, P-Vine. While keeping the soul and groove alive, they have the free improvised sounds, from soulful to sultry, from eclectic to eccentric. This group really captured the modern, urban bright light city vibe while sounding soulfully sweet like the way it was back then.

The night was already late when Oleta Adams stood on stage. You should remember her golden hit, “Get Here” right? It was in 1990. Now she’s ready to give something new. The new album Let’s Stay Here, rooted in soulful jazz influenced music that shares many stories, covering good and bad times. That includes “Feeling Good”, originally Nina Simone’s but later popularized by Michael Buble again. Oleta has a very thick and rich voice as a gift; certainly it was lovely to listen. Jon Regen, a protégé of Kenny Barron was cool all the way to midnight. If pop rock (n roll) world has Billy Joel or Elton John as singing pianist, happy to say that the jazz world now has Jon Regen spicing it up.

Bintang Indrianto Trio ++ is the current band of bassist, composer and music producer Bintang Indrianto. This group has been running since 2014 until now. If you wonder about the ++, this symbol enables him to collaborate or feature more players as he wants to. Bonita and Joel Achmad are some of the names who filled the extension. AS for the trio, guitarist Denny Chasmala and drummer Iqball are his mates.

Kenny Lattimore represented the world of neo soul the purest way. He just sings with his tender soft voice naturally without any intention to show off once so ever, the result is soothing, relaxing and deeply romantic. Charming, seducing. Lovely!

Harvey Mason is back again, this time highlighting his latest album, “Chameleon”. This title track came from Herbie Hancock’s classic hit from 1973 that got Mason’s rhythmic spank over the jazz-funk staple. Mr Mason has graced so many Java Jazz Festivals edition either as a soloist or with Fourplay, but we can never get tired of him. As one of the most recorded and in-demand drummers of all time, he always offers many things to learn and enchantingly entertaining at the same time. A source of inspiration for drummers and jazz musicians in general he is indeed.

As Laya Putri delivered the beauty of jazz from female jazz singer, Gustu Brahmanta Trio on the other hand transferred the sacred Balinese spirit through their music. The trio combines Western and Balinese instruments, using drums, percussion, contrabass and rindik, gamelan. If you think ethnic music should only played by big ensemble, Gustu Brahmanta Trio proves the otherwise. The three players dare to bring the Balinese jazz concept alive with just minimalist formation. And it works perfectly. Timeless Fusion Party consists of 6 players that are carrying the mission to share the instrumental music to the Chinese spoken world. In order to do so, they combine western groove and eastern melody, fusing it to create a unique new hybrid. On the C1 hall Dewa Budjana rested his case. Throughout 2014 Budjana has been busy having tour to USA and producing some albums involving many overseas superstars, so of course we need to see his show to be updated.

It was already midnight, but there were several shows to be done. The Overtunes, a brotherly music group with Mikha Angelo from X-Factor as frontman. They completed their performance with Al Jarreau’s “Morning”, Kenny Loggins’ “Heart to Heart”, and Justin Timberlake’s “Mirrors”. LaidThis Nite Orchestra played after midnight while Shadow Puppets played with Reed Ensemble featuring Harvey Malaiholo this time, also playing the works of Cole Porter.

Now time passed midnight but the crowd were still there waiting for another guest star, Sheila on 7 were ready to meet their loyal fans. Not so long ago, there was a bad experience where this band couldn’t make their come back moment on stage. Now, they got another chance, a better one, at a big yet prestigious event, Java Jazz Festival 2015. What a proper moment to officially back on stage, greet their fans, and fill our craving of their music. Recently they released the 8th album, “Musim yang Baik”, they served us with new tunes without forgetting our longing to their old but everlasting hits.

The soul singer who we think is like the young Donny Hathaway, having smooth, sexy but deep vocal style Jarrod Lawson also ran almost at the end of Day 1. This man took the road of old school funky soul with gospel music. It really was nice to listen after munching so many shows since the afternoon. Another last show was Meshell Ndegeocello who is a unique artist and multi talented. Other than standing as a singer, she is also a rapper, bassist and songwriter. Speaking of music, hers involves wide variety of influences including jazz, funk, soul all the way to rock and even reggae.

Phew, what a day it was. But that was still Day 1. There will be two more days of actions. Stay tuned for more!

See more pictures:

Reporter: Riandy Kurniawan, Mellysa Anastasya, Daniel Irawan Deo Karmawan
Photographer: Titus Firmanto, Mia Damayanti, Bayu Warjiyo
Team: Vierna Mariska

After a full loaded Day 1, here we come to Java Jazz Festival 2015, Day 2. Just like before, plenty of attraction, mouth watering big names, today’s giants, rising stars and potential newcomers served their crafts on almost 20 stages.

Just like yesterday, the party started early. Lantun Orchestra opened up on Outdoor stage. This ensemble wishes to (re)introduce the richness of Indonesian traditional music especially the Batavian like keroncong, tanjidor and the likes. But what’s unique, in order to bring it they use jazz elements not only nin notations but also improvisations, solo runs and call & response. Keroncong appears modern with splashes of jazz without neglecting the original spirit is made possible, thanks to Chaka Priambudi on bass, Nesia Ardi on vocal, Kenny Gabriel on trumpet, Arman Chaniago on drum and kendang, Windy Setiadi on accordion, Armia Husein on flute, Tio Alibasyah on guitar, and Donny Prasetyo on keyboard. The interesting part was their mixing appearance where they wore traditional clothes from Betawi with sunglasses and sneakers and sang Betawi songs such as “Ondel-ondel”, “Jali-jali”, and Titik Puspa’s “Gang Kelinci”. Smart!

While Hendrik Meurkens gave a nice jazz harmonica package early in the afternoon and Ron King Big Band treated the audience with swingin’ sensation, Tesla Manaf showcased the magic of music he called progressive acoustic experimental. This is his latest craft that made him go international under MoonJune Records. Hadis Hendarisman (clarinet), Khrisna Alda (bass) and Desal Sembada (drums) are his team mates. For us who know Tesla’s struggle in establishing himself inside the industry, we are more than happy to see him make it at this year’s edition. As usual, masterclass play just like a jazz veteran.

The bassist of legendary group Uzeb and Se7entrion, Alain Caron heated the festival early with his fusion fire, and the Indonesian gem Emerald BEX set the fire exactly on the opposite side of the venue. Live at Wonderland, a group of musicians who frequently play their music in several jazz events and support its community finally arrived at the biggest jazz event and Symbiosis got their chance too around the same time. Symbiosis, a jazz band, with special composition and well-served jazz standards has Chris Dragotta on sax, Michael Kruge on bass/cello, Gary Fredriksen on drums, and Boris de Vries on guitar behind it all.

Ever since we know Salamander Big Band since 2007 they have been showing the life like wine, getting better with age. They consistently bring guest stars from Europe each and every year, learning new things from them and perform together. Getting more knowledge and experient shape them to be a big band with international quality. This year they are back again to this fest. From the facial expression they were proud and happy, we are also happy for them too.

“Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” How many people has this quote as a blessing? Well, it comes from Bobby McFerrin, the man who can do just about anything with his voice. As a legend, he can perform either all by himself or with full band just as cool. If in 2012 he gave a totally out of the box show by involving Balinese kecak, masked dancer and gamelan, this year he …… Having seen him doing many things, from the simplest one to the completely improvised like when he was with Chick Corea, Bobby McFerrin always know how to make people deeply into his show. Hey, he’s never forget to involve the audience too. Another good round from Mr McFerrin.

Then it was time to see the musicians that have brought the Pre Event to our own Braga Jazz Walk community event in Bandung (read the report here: http://jazzuality.com/jazz-event-report/braga-jazz-walk-special-edition-pre-event-java-jazz-festival-2015-the-report/). It’s VAC, consists of Israel Varela (drums), Nita Aartsen (piano) and Daniele Cappucci (contrabass), featuring Yeppy Romero (acoustic guitar) and Marcello Allulli (saxophone). What they bring on the plate is something unique, the Flamenco Jazz. Nita bridged the classical, jazz and Flamenco bites on piano, Daniele ran wild intensely on bass while Varela gave rich Andalucia-flavored rhythm. Yeppy’s flamenco guitar playing was spectacular, so was Allulli’s alto saxophone attack. Just marvelous. Different, colorful and special.

It’s nice to see Reza Artamevia at the Java Jazz Festival. She rose to fame in 1997 with two evergreens, “Satu yang Tak Bisa Lepas”, “Aku Wanita” and “Pertama”, then from there she made more hits. Then she was dissapeared but then in 2012 she was back, stronger and ever, then moved fast by releasing single and album. What’s cool is that ever since she came back, she graced some jazz stages including North Sumatra Jazz Festival. Now she’s landed on the Java Jazz’s soil, sharing her new spirit in jazz soul. She made the crowd cheering out loud because Teza Sumendra suddenly showed up and sang “Biar Menjadi Kenangan” and Michael Lington also accompanied her. Singer, movie and drama star Rinni Wulandari‘s act was on B1 hall. She’s known as one participant from Indonesian Idol years ago. It had opened her way in Indonesia music industry at very young age and now she keeps growing and has many accomplishments.

When Blue Note Tokyo opened in 1988, soon after this place gathered Japanese jazz musicians under the name of All-Star Jazz Orchestra, directed by Eric Miyashiro. They have played with legends like Arturo Sandoval and sailed much further to reach other sides of the sphere like Montreux. Now they came to Indonesia. Lucky for us, we could feel how it is in Blue Note Tokyo without having to go there. Arigatou! When the sky turned to dark, jazz drum veteran Karim Suweileh and the Jazzy Quintet paid a swingin tribute to The Beatles.

Time for us to enjoy bossa from one of its most up front ambassador, Lisa Ono. We are happy to see her finally back again after her last visit to Java Jazz Festival in 2007. If 7 years ago she gave an unforgettable performance, this time she did it again. Still warm, heartfelt, pure and humble, Lisa made a lovely and intimate session to hundreds of her fans. 7 years passed, but nothing changed because Lisa still has a lot of fans in Indonesia. Again, it was very sweet. You can imagine how beautiful it is to hear classics bossa from the legend that has it inside her heart, mind and soul. She completed the show with encore plus “Bengawan Solo” and “Over the Rainbow”. Awesome, awesome number of crowds.

Four on a Swing, Akiko, Jarrod Lawson, Meshell Ndegeocello, Courtney Pine, Jumaane Smith ft Ron King Quartet, Jon Regen, Mary Stallings, Oleta Adams, Kenny Lattimore, Wayne Krantz/Anthony Jackson/Cliff Almond and Gregoire Maret Quartet got another turn after their show yesterday.

Something cool happened on Java Jazz Coffee stage. It was The Diplomats, when the junior and senior diplomats as well as high rank officials of the Foreign Ministry of the Republic of Indonesia entertained people with variety of music, from jazz, rock to Indonesian songs. At the B2 Sweden proud son, saxophonist Magnus Lindgren gave another stunning show just like his participation in the 2012 edition but for today Jimi Tenor also came along with him. Van Java as a progressive band from Jakarta successfully entertained the crowd with their rockin stage act blending with metal and jazz tunes.

Tulus once again blasted the festival. His show was overcrowded, dragging so many people like a magnet. With just two albums, the selftitled and Gajah, Tulus now stands as one of the top superstars of Indonesia. Everyone know his songs and sang along. Tulus was fully connected with his fans as well. One of the most phenomenal Indonesian artists of the decade, or maybe of all time, it’s interesting to see where he will go from here. But up to this point, he’s doing remarkable and his stage was full house.

The past couple of years seems to be a perfect year for Tohpati. He’s being productive in making one album after another in short time. “Too many notes inside my head waiting to be expressed. I couldn’t wait any longer to record the album” he said to us when he launched his album, “Tribal Dance” which featured Jimmy Haslip and Chad Wackerman. Less than a year before that he just released an album where he used acoustic guitar, “Song For You”. His calm looking expression while playing can never hide the fact that he’s excellent in executing his music. Many unreleased compositions were played tonight. Sharp but never too difficult to chew, good to watch both for those who learn and seek for entertainment, it’s hard to imagine a jazz festival without his presence.

Speaking of jazz violinist, most of us would remember Stephane Grappelli. Here comes a player that earns respect not only by being skillful but for his creativity. Covering wide areas from jazz, classical to world music, he stands as a reputable player that has played alongside diverse musicians. At this 2015 edition Luca Ciarla played with US-born but German-based pianist Chris Jarrett. They have been touring together and showed their dazzling improvisations to Saturday fest-goers. On the other side, one of the Soulvibe frontman, Abenk Alter decided to go solo since 2013. With this move, he has the chance to dig his true-self which lies in between soul and jazz with a soft, sweet vintage approach, just like his debut single, “Lain Waktu” from his album which had released last November titled, “Selamat Datang”. In our interview after his show, Abenk shared about his experiences going solo. Nikita Dompas is one of many people who convinced him to be confident and be soloist because Abenk’s proven ability in writing and making music. Abenk already set his signature in many musicians through his songs and now he just tries to be himself and dig more his musical side. The challenge being soloist is his own self but it is exciting yet challenging to try anything alone. Tonight crowd was beyond his expectation and he extremely grateful for that. Hope the best for your future music, Abenk.

There are many trumpeter, but only a few who digs like Etienne Charles. He exhibits the music from his native culture of Trinidad but at thesame time embraces the sound of American jazz. It was like a party on the beach. Excitingly fresh!

Another famous trumpeter was found on the other hall. There are many words that would fit to describe Chris Botti, but if you ask us, we would say, romantic. That accumulates on his latest CD released 3 years ago, “Impressions”. Special for JJF2015, Botti includes violinist Caroline Campbell, opera singer George Komsky, and the unique RnB singer Sy Smith. With more than 250 gigs in a year, the band was tight with another level of chemistry and aggressive playing, but we gotta say that the drummer, Billy Kilson, stole the show as usual. Botti and Kilson has played together for so long and Kilson is probably one of the very few rhythm sections to be allowed to steal shows from the main artist. Kilson showed another level solo jazz drumming by replace a drumstick with a shaker, barehands, and even some acrobatic move. It is not the only highlight. The main one is when Botti and Sy Smith engage the audience directly, and Botti appeared to play in front (or for) a disabled lady. It was such a memorable performance, a lovely night, with a romantic mood with strong jazz fusion vibe. Chris Botti definitely offered a whole package of jazztainment and everyone seems to leave the hall with smile . Caro The lovely sultry jazz vocalist,

Danilla delivered the easy listening songs with jazz taste, noir tone and in some ways, indie. This winning combination proved to work in order to grab wide segment mt of listeners. Performing with fellow musicians mostly from Bandung, Lafa Green (guitar), Christ Stanley (keyboard), Edward Manurung (drums) and Jalu Gallang Dalimunthe (bass), he combined her original songs and some standards. Beside played the keyboard, Christ Stanley also sang in several numbers and Danilla played melodica. Listen to her album, “Telisik”, as seen at her live performance tonight, how mature she is in lyrical and musical in spite of her young age. Also from Bandung came Dhira Bongs. With her mezzo soprano voice as heard in her album, “My Precious”, this petite young girl took the blend of folk, swing and groove as her music and calls her music as “Exploration Pop Jazz”.

The Georgian ethno-jazz band Iriao gave a different sound. The name came from the common phrase ‘Iriao-uruao’ commonly found in Krimanchuli. David Malazonia led his team to bring light but distinctive Georgian sound, no intention to modernize this authentic Georgian polyphonic music, but what they aim is to saturate and adorn it with jazz elements. As the result, they don’t play difficult ethnic jazz to digest even by the common listeners.

If you’re a long time jazz lovers who already live with it for at least a couple of decades, you should praise the works of the legendary Mr Ramsey Lewis. Well, he’s being busy with the industry for -listen to this- almost 60 years! He has seen it all. The birth of new styles, sub-genres, hybrids, and he’s been digging most of them too. Jazz, gospel, blues, soul, or pop, all will be special when it comes from him. And of course, who could ever forget his monumental collaboration with Madame Nancy Wilson, resulting three classic albums? We are lucky, so very lucky to be able to watch and cover his show. He’s almost 80 today, but he still looks fresh like many decades ago. And speaking of his finger-dancing, we say he doesn’t loose anything at all. Genius in composing, finesse execution. Indeed it’s a blessing to watch his show. Unforgettable, totally. As awesome addition, Maurice Brown joined the stage and rockin the night.

As Afgan made so many attending fans happy, John Primer & the Living History Band gave roaring, authentic Delta blues on his stage. It was simply like sitting near the Mississippi river, forgetting everything and just enjoying the moment. Meanwhile, Idang Rasjidi appeared as a quintet at Semeru. Moving on to another show, we met Benjamin Herman Quartet from Netherlands on C2 stage. Led by saxophonist Benjamin Herman, this group gave a cool classic boppin’ bites.

Bass, anyone? If you say yes, then Richard Bona should catch your attention. He is one of the important names in the scene. What he gave on stage is something so playful, the word fun attached strongly, but equipped with such high skill both in playing and composing. Just funkin’ nice. Anthony Stanco, a trumpeter who grew up in Detroit area played under Anthony Stanco Jazz Ensemble, he brings his project which was reflected in his first album, The Crucial Elements. With Marcus Elliot (tenor sax), Paul Bratcher (piano), Sam Copperman (bass) and Jordan Otto (drums), he shows that he can pin just about any genres to fit jazz style. What’s important is to gie music with meaning, it has to contain feelings and emotions that can move the audience. They did it. And for the record, Anthony Stanco Jazz Ensemble is going to give free clinic to Palembang Jazz Community. For that we should thank him.

2015 is special for Mocca. This year remark their comeback and the newest album they just released, titled “Home”. Since Arina, the vocalist, has to come back and forth between America and Indonesia, Mocca’s concerts become something people increasingly looking for. In this early year also they provided several special shows for swinging friends. After their first ever 2015 concert last January in their hometown, Bandung, they continually spoiled the loyal fans that live outside Bandung so they also can enjoy our lovely Mocca’s performance.

Jon Regen, a protege of Kenny Barron was cool all the way to midnight. If pop rock (n roll) world has Billy Joel or Elton John as singing pianist, happy to say that the jazz world now has Jon Regen spicing it up.

This year there are many trumpeters found in the lineup. Check out Anthony Stanco who grew in the Detroit area. As the talented drummer from younger generation Dion subiakto led his team on Java Jazz Stage, a female jazz trio Jazzy Juice was granted a spot to perform on Delta Stage. One thing you should know about this group is that they combine good jazz and fun chat on stage, just like what you usually have while enjoying a glass of juice with friends. Dyah Sekar on piano gives sweet, tasty melodies, Adhisty Zulkarnaen on drums provides colorful solid beat and monster groove is at max with Arnie Christanty’s electric bass. Special for tonight they brought along Jilly Likumahuwa as vocalist and percussion player and sang “Samba de minha terra” medley with “Manuk Dadali” which dragged so many people to their area. Since they were from Bandung, we have seen and follow their growth, evolving all the way up to this height. We are proud of them. You go ladies!

In the album Translantic R.P.M (2010), Incognito made a big breakthrough by featuring Chaka Khan and Mario Biondi for covering Boz Scaggs’ “Lowdown”. Since the collaboration was perfect, we always dreamed to see it here, and Java Jazz Festival is the most possible option; had it ever happen. At this 11th edition that dream came true. Chaka Khan indeed made her come back to the festival after her last performance in 2007, and this time she got strong support by Incognito. “I Feel For You” opened the show and “Ain’t Nobody” was followed. After that Incognito served us with their hits and then Chaka Khan came back and continued with “Until You Come Back to Me”, “Through the Fire” and the official song of woman empowerment, “I’m Every Woman” closed the show. The collaboration between legends like this is always a big catch. Just one of them would already amazing, now double that by two, there you got this act. And the collaboration itself was an ace. Speaking of making a come back, the jazz/funk/ rock/world music artist David Garfield again gave enormous contribution in continuing his constant presence at the Java Jazz Festival.

At this point the time was already late but the Day 2 was still far from over. Getting people attention last year through a hits called ‘Hey Gadis’, FliM which consists of Eron Leban as vocalist, Ahmad ‘Vian’ Oktaviansyah as bassist, Elfir Safir as guitarist, and Jantan Gerhana as drummer first time ever came up into Java Jazz stage. Meanwhile, the legendary band originally from Bandung Kahitna reigned on the big C1 hall. Speaking of Kahitna, most of the music fans might take them as a pop band, and that’s not totally wrong. But we should remember that they actually began with thick jazz fusion on their menu. Especially with Yovie Widianto who has jazz printed all over his heart and soul, many of Kahitna songs are actually simplified from jazz, as he told us some times ago. Almost 30 years in service, Kahitna still has so many fans. They are still energetic and passionate. And the show was as delicious as always.

There are many male trumpeter, but what about female? This year we got Ginetta M, a multi talented lady who plays trumpet, sings and composes, also leads his funky jazzy blues band, Ginetta’s Vendetta. Her signature pocket-trumpet is one of a kind, her sultry vocals and her hot funky act are some of the cool things to expect from her show. From jazz to Blues, to RnB, to Salsa, Ginetta took us to party along with the worldwide famous hammond organ player, Tony Monaco.

Gerald Situmorang was known as one of guitar duo Sketsa. Last year he made a move by releasing his new band simply called Gerald Situmorang Trio. Having two of his closest friends: Ankadiov Subran (bass) and Jessilardus Mates (drums), he demonstrated the real him, musically speaking, which clearly rooted in modern jazz along with cool improvisations. This band has released one album “Time is the Answer” and is looking forward to embark on new adventures. A very interesting trio and promising. Skyline and Absurdnation played on each of their spot. The former is jazz band based in Tapiei, Taiwan, filled by five fellows: Jazzy on keyboard, Richard on bass, Allen on drum, Sean on guitar, and Jimmy on sax. Together they filled the air with various genres, funk, fusion, R&B, you name it. The latter is a newly indie band is around the corner. Four men come from Semarang: Nanda Goeltom on vocal, Yusuf Saputra on piano & synth, Fauz Hibatul Haqqi on bass, and Fanny Wardoyo on drum & percussion and ready hail audiences with their ethnic jazz melodies.

The third winner of American Idol 2012, Joshua Ledet, a soulman, gave a sweet soul RnB performance that melted the ladies’ hearts. That included his hit “Here to Die”, sang with his modern day Motown voice. Then came the moment to check out one of the most sensational pairing, this time between Brad Mehldau and Mark Guiliana, together as Mehliana. Both are genius on their weapon, their works together feels stunning and alive. While the album Taming the Dragon received many good reviews from critics, their video clips has inspired many musicians to take a brave step like them. Unique keys-drum connection. Not the first in the music scene but certainly innovative. For a start, they are not playing the traditional jazz, what they do is something out of the box. What can be created from fender Rhodes/synthesizers and drums and effects? Mehliana has proven that plenty of good things can be made. Sky is the limit. Many things to learn from their show.

Fusion roared wild and fun from the Java Jazz Coffee stage, courtesy of Fusion Stuff. Each corner is guarded by competent players. The leader is keys wiz Krishna Siregar, the monster groove bassist Franky Sadikin, senior guitarist Kadek Rihardika, cute but lethal girl drummer Jeane Phialsa and the seductive saxophonist you see every night in Net TV’s The Comment, Damez Nababan. They bring back the sound of old-skool fusion to appear modern, in a way reminds us of Japanese legends Casiopea and T-Square without the EWI (electronic wind instrument). For a fusion band, their songs are considerably easy to follow and some are actually very melodious and story-telling. It’s challenging, fun to listen and to watch.

That’s the end of our report on Day 2. Stay tuned for our report on the third and final day of Java Jazz Festival 2015.

Breaking News
In Memoriam: Yeppy Romero

ps: A sad news came right at the end of this 2nd day. We are deeply saddened  by the passing of Yeppy Romero, the Flamenco Jazz hero, just a couple of days after his last performance with VAC. May God rest his soul.

See more pictures:

Reporter: Riandy Kurniawan, Mellysa Anastasya, Daniel Irawan Deo Karmawan
Photographer: Titus Firmanto, Mia Damayanti, Bayu Warjiyo
Team: Vierna Mariska